Changing perspectives in marine nitrogen fixation

Abstract

Nitrogen fixation, the reduction of atmospheric dinitrogen gas (N₂) to ammonia, is critical for biological productivity but is difficult to study in the vast expanse of the global ocean. Decades of field studies and the infusion of molecular biological, genomic, isotopic, and geochemical modeling approaches have led to new paradigms and questions. The discovery of previously unknown N₂-fixing (diazotrophic) microorganisms and unusual physiological adaptations, combined with diagnostic distributions of nutrients and their isotopes as well as measured and modeled biogeographic patterns, have revolutionized our understanding of marine N₂ fixation and its role in the global nitrogen cycle. Anthropogenic upper-ocean warming, increased dissolved carbon dioxide, and acidification will affect the distribution and relative importance of specific subgroups of N₂ fixers in the sea; these changes have implications for foodwebs and biogeochemical cycles.