Misconceptions of the marine biological carbon pump in a changing climate: Thinking outside the "export" box.

The marine biological carbon pump (BCP) stores carbon in the ocean interior, isolating it from exchange with the atmosphere and thereby coregulating atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ). As the BCP commonly is equated with the flux of organic material to the ocean interior, termed "export flux," a change in export flux is perceived to directly impact atmospheric CO , and thus climate. Here, we recap how this perception contrasts with current understanding of the BCP, emphasizing the lack of a direct relationship between global export flux and atmospheric CO .

Organic Phosphorus Scavenging Supports Efficient Growth of Diazotrophic Cyanobacteria Under Phosphate Depletion.

Considering the reported significant diazotrophic activities in open-ocean regions where primary production is strongly limited by phosphate, we explored the ability of diazotrophs to use other sources of phosphorus to alleviate the phosphate depletion. We tested the actual efficiency of the open-ocean, N-fixer to grow on organic phosphorus as the sole P source, and observed how the P source affects the cellular C, N, and P composition. We obtained equivalent growth efficiencies on AMP and DL-α-glycerophosphate as compared with identical cultures grown on phosphate, and survival of the population on phytic acid.

Can Top-Down Controls Expand the Ecological Niche of Marine N Fixers?

The ability of marine diazotrophs to fix dinitrogen gas (N) is one of the most influential yet enigmatic processes in the ocean. With their activity diazotrophs support biological production by fixing about 100-200 Tg N/year and turning otherwise unavailable dinitrogen into bioavailable nitrogen (N), an essential limiting nutrient. Despite their important role, the factors that control the distribution of diazotrophs and their ability to fix N are not fully elucidated.

A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks.

Nitrous oxide (NO), like carbon dioxide, is a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere. Over the past 150 years, increasing atmospheric NO concentrations have contributed to stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change, with the current rate of increase estimated at 2 per cent per decade. Existing national inventories do not provide a full picture of NO emissions, owing to their omission of natural sources and limitations in methodology for attributing anthropogenic sources.

Loss of fixed nitrogen causes net oxygen gain in a warmer future ocean.

Oceanic anoxic events have been associated with warm climates in Earth history, and there are concerns that current ocean deoxygenation may eventually lead to anoxia. Here we show results of a multi-millennial global-warming simulation that reveal, after a transitory deoxygenation, a marine oxygen inventory 6% higher than preindustrial despite an average 3 °C ocean warming. An interior-ocean oxygen source unaccounted for in previous studies explains two thirds of the oxygen excess reached after a few thousand years.

Global Marine N Fixation Estimates: From Observations to Models.

Fixed nitrogen (N) limits productivity across much of the low-latitude ocean. The magnitude of its inventory results from the balance of N input and N loss, the latter largely occurring in regionally well-defined low-oxygen waters and sediments (denitrification and anammox). The rate and distribution of N input by biotic N fixation, the dominant N source, is not well known.

Patterns of deoxygenation: sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic drivers.

Observational estimates and numerical models both indicate a significant overall decline in marine oxygen levels over the past few decades. Spatial patterns of oxygen change, however, differ considerably between observed and modelled estimates. Particularly in the tropical thermocline that hosts open-ocean oxygen minimum zones, observations indicate a general oxygen decline, whereas most of the state-of-the-art models simulate increasing oxygen levels.