Impact of diazotrophy on N stable isotope signatures of nitrate and particulate organic nitrogen: case studies in the north-eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.

During two independent cruises in the north-eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean, we applied two different approaches to investigate the impact of diazotrophy on nitrogen stable isotope signatures in nitrate and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) of the food-web constituents. The first approach, used during the Poseidon cruise 348 in the Mauritanian upwelling, investigated the long-term influence of diazotrophy on the natural abundance of δ(15)N-NO(-)(3) and PON. The second approach, adopted during the Cape Verde field cruise, applied stable isotope tracer addition experiments. These served to determine the instantaneous transfer of diazotrophic N to the higher trophic level. Both approaches showed that N(2) fixation was compatible with the pattern and the magnitude of the isotopic depletion of dissolved NO(-)(3) during the Mauritanian upwelling cruise, as well as PON in zooplankton and phytoplankton during the Cape Verde cruises. An N-budget using (15)N incorporation rates and diazotrophic N(2) fixation rates showed that 6 % of the daily N(2) fixation was potentially taken up by the mesozooplankton community. Direct grazing accounted for 56 % of gross mesozooplanktonic N incorporation, while 46 % occurred due to channelling through the microbial loop.