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The Ocean Carbon Cycle and Climate pp 97–148Cite as

The Dynamics of the Marine Nitrogen Cycle and its Influence on Atmospheric CO2 Variations

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Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((NAIV,volume 40))

Abstract

The bioavailability of nutrients represents one of the most important factors controlling the strength of the biological carbon pump and ultimately the impact of ocean biology on atmospheric CO2. Among those nutrients, the macro-nutrients nitrate (NO -2 ) and phosphate (PO -34 ) play a particularly important role in limiting biological productivity as evidenced by their often near complete exhaustion in surface waters. As near surface NO -2 concentrations are generally somewhat lower than those of PO -34 relative to the demand by phytoplankton, biological oceanographers have argued historically that NO -2 rather than PO -34 is the primary macro-nutrient controlling phytoplankton productivity[Smith, 1984; Codispoti, 1989; Tyrrell, 1999] . Geologists, in contrast, regarded PO -34 as the primary controlling macronutrient[Codispoti, 1989]. They argued that while NO -2 may indeed be the limiting factor at any given location and time, PO -34 is truly the limiting factor on geological time-scales, because the biologically mediated fixation of the much more abundant dinitrogen gas (N2) into organic nitrogen is alleviating the scarcity of bioavailable nitrogen (Figure 1). Phosphate on the other hand, does not have such a biologically mediated source (Figure 1). It is therefore the geologically controlled balance between the riverine (and atmospheric) input of PO -34 and its burial on the sea-floor that ultimately controls marine biological productivity. Tyrrell [ 1999] provided a synthesis of these two views by identifying NO -2 as the proximate nutrient, while giving PO -34 the role of being the ultimate nutrient.

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  1. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Nicolas Gruber

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  1. Department of Earth Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Mick Follows

  2. Institute of Marine Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Erdemli, Turkey

    Temel Oguz

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Gruber, N. (2004). The Dynamics of the Marine Nitrogen Cycle and its Influence on Atmospheric CO2 Variations. In: Follows, M., Oguz, T. (eds) The Ocean Carbon Cycle and Climate. NATO Science Series, vol 40. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2087-2_4

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