Transatlantic Abundance of the N 2 -Fixing Colonial Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium
- 9 June 2006
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 312 (5779), 1517-1520
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1123570
Abstract
Colonial diazotrophic cyanobacteria of the genus Trichodesmium are thought to play a significant role in the input of new nitrogen to upper layers of the tropical and subtropical oceanic ecosystems that cover nearly half of Earth's surface. Here we describe results of a transatlantic survey in which a noninvasive underwater digital microscope (the video plankton recorder), was towed across the North Atlantic at 6 meters per second while undulating between the surface and 130 meters. Colony abundance had a basin-scale trend, a clear association with anticyclonic eddies, and was not affected by hurricane-forced mixing. Subsurface abundance was higher than previously reported, which has important implications for the global ocean nitrogen cycle.Keywords
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