The CTD/hydrocast package descending into the Southern Ocean water column from the deck of the South African research icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II, sailing from Cape Town to the Antarctic winter ice edge. Photo: Preston Cosslett Kemeny ’15
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In order to provide biological systematics from which to interpret nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotope ratios of nitrate (15N/14N, 18O/16O, respectively) in the environment, we previously investigated the isotopic fractionation of nitrate during its assimilation by mono-cultures of eukaryotic algae (Granger et al., 2004). In this study, we…
To better constrain the dynamics of the dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) pool and the role of N2 fixation in the nitrogen cycle at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site, we measured the 15N/14N ratio of total nongaseous nitrogen (TN) in the upper 250 m and of nitrate in the upper 1000 m of monthly water column profiles from June 2000…
We have adapted the ammonia diffusion method of nitrate extraction for natural-abundance level nitrogen isotopic measurement of oceanic nitrate. The method involves: (1) sample concentration (by boiling or evaporation); (2) conversion of nitrate to ammonia using Devarda s alloy; and (3) the gas-phase diffusion of ammonia onto an acidified glass…
Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle intensified over the 1900s. Model simulations suggest that large swaths of the open ocean, including the North Atlantic and the western Pacific, have already been affected by anthropogenic nitrogen through atmospheric transport and deposition. Here we report an ∼130-yearlong record of the 15N/14N of…
We report nitrogen (N) isotopic measurements of nitrate, total dissolved nitrogen, and particulate nitrogen from Antarctic pack ice in early and late spring. Salinity-normalized concentrations of total fixed N are approximately twofold higher than in seawater, indicating that sea ice exchanges fixed N with seawater after its formation. The…
We report and interpret the nitrate δ15N and δ18O distributions in the cross-basin transect of the US GEOTRACES North Atlantic expedition. Lownitrate δ15N observed in the shallowthermocline of the centralwestern portion of the basin (reaching as lowas 2.5%vs. air; 2.3%lower than deep Atlantic nitrate) reflects the remineralization of nitrogen…
N and O isotope analyses of water column nitrate between Bermuda and Puerto Rico document a bolus of low-δ15N nitrate throughout the Sargasso Sea thermocline, which we attribute primarily to the input of recently fixed N. Although previous work suggests southward increases in N2 fixation and ventilation age, no meridional trend in nitrate δ15N is…
Biogeochemical processes within the Atlantic basin alter the nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotopic compositions (δ 15 N and δ 18 O) of nitrate before this nutrient is carried from the upper water column into the deep ocean by the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). Here, nitrate δ 15 N and δ 18 O measurements along the 2013 CLIVAR/GO…
We have developed a transportable spectroscopic nitrogen isotopic analyzer. The spectrometer is based on dual-modulation Faraday rotation spectroscopy of nitric oxide isotopologues with near shot-noise limited performance and baseline-free operation. Noise analysis indicates minor isotope (15NO) detection sensitivity of 0.36 ppbv·Hz−1/2,…
We report the first measurements of coupled nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotope fractionation of nitrate by laboratory cultures of denitrifying bacteria. Two seawater strains (Pseudomonas stutzeri, Ochrobactrum sp.) and three freshwater strains (Paracoccus denitrificans, Pseudomonas chlororaphis, Rhodobacter sphaeroides) were examined. Among four…
Throughout the year 2001, aerosol samples were collected continuously for 10 to 15 days at the French Antarctic Station Dumont d Urville (DDU) (66°40′S, 140°01′E, 40m above mean sea level). The nitrogen and oxygen isotopic ratios of particulate nitrate at DDU exhibit seasonal variations that are among the most extreme observed for nitrate on Earth…
With the rapid rise in pollution-associated nitrogen inputs to the western Pacific, it has been suggested that even the open ocean has been affected. In a coral core from Dongsha Atoll, a remote coral reef ecosystem, we observe a decline in the 15N/14N of coral skeleton-bound organic matter, which signals increased deposition of anthropogenic…
This chapter reviews the ongoing efforts to use sediment and ice core records to understand the dynamics of oceanic fixed nitrogen (N), focusing on recent glacial-interglacial cycles. Research has, up to this point, followed the reductionist approach of trying to reconstruct either changes in the ocean N budget (largely through low latitude…
The nitrogen isotopic composition of time-series sediment trap samples, dissolved NO3/-, and surficial sediments was determined in three regions along the margin of the eastern North Pacific: Monterey Bay, San Pedro Basin, and the Gulf of California (Carmen and Guaymas Basins). Complex physical regimes are present in all three areas, and each is…
We report nitrate (NO3-) nitrogen isotope ratios for seawater samples collected in the Subantarctic Zone of the Southern Ocean during both winter and summer as part of the Australian Antarctic CRC Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) Project. The concentration and 15N/14N of the wintertime surface nitrate are very close to those of the subantarctic thermocline…
We report 15N/14N measurements of water column nitrate and ammonium, sinking particles, and sediments from the Cariaco Basin, an anoxic marine basin off the coast of Venezuela. Water column denitrification occurring in the basin has only a very small isotopic imprint on nitrate in the basin because nitrate consumption is nearly complete in the…
The million-year variability of the marine nitrogen cycle is poorly understood. Before 57 million years (Ma) ago, the 15N/14N ratio (d15N) of foraminifera shell-bound organic matter from three sediment cores was high, indicating expanded water column suboxia and denitrification. Between 57 and 50 Ma ago, d15N declined by 13 to 16 per mil in the…
Biological nitrogen fixation constitutes the main input of fixed nitrogen to Earth s ecosystems, and its isotope effect is a key parameter in isotope-based interpretations of the N cycle. The nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15N) of newly fixed N is currently believed to be∼-10/00, based on measurements of organic matter from diazotrophs using…
This article outlines the isotope systematics of processes in the ocean nitrogen (N) cycle and their impact on the isotopic compositions of the major N forms, with an eye toward how the N isotopes may record current N fluxes and past changes. The dominant dynamic is of kinetic isotope discrimination, in which the light isotope of N (14N) is…
This article outlines the isotope systematics of the major processes in the ocean nitrogen (N) cycle, their impact on the isotopic compositions of the major N reservoirs in the ocean, and how the N isotopes in the modern ocean and sedimentary record may record current N fluxes and past changes. The dominant dynamic is of kinetic isotope…
Nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N) are a well-established tool for investigating the dietary and trophic behavior of animals in terrestrial and marine food webs. To date, δ15N values in fossils have primarily been measured in collagen extracted from bone or dentin, which is susceptible to degradation and rarely preserved in deep time (>100,000…
The nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15N) of otolith-bound organic matter (OM) is a potential source of information on dietary history of bony fishes. In contrast to the δ15N of white muscle tissue, the most commonly used tissue for ecological studies, the δ15N of otolith-bound OM (δ15Noto) provides a record of whole life history. More importantly,…
Studies have suggested that cancerous tissue has a lower 15N/14N ratio than benign tissue. However, human data have been inconclusive, possibly due to constraints on experimental design. Here, we used high-sensitivity nitrogen isotope methods to assess the 15N/14N ratio of human breast, lung, and kidney cancer tissue at unprecedented spatial…
Ongoing human activities are known to affect nitrogen cycling on coral reefs, but the full history of anthropogenic impact is unclear due to a lack of continuous records. We have used the nitrogen isotopic composition of skeleton-bound organic matter (CS-δ15N) in a coastal Porites coral from Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef as a proxy for…
We investigated the controls on the δ15N values of shell-bound organic matter of planktonic foraminifera (foraminifera-bound δ15N, or FB-δ15N). The bulk biomass δ15N of live foraminifera collected from plankton tows at Sta. S in the Sargasso Sea is within ∼1‰ of the FB-δ15N of the same species picked from surface sediments from the low-latitude…
We present the first nitrogen isotope (δ15N) measurements of planktic foraminifera, paleoceanographically important zooplankton, from the nutrient-rich waters of the modern Southern Ocean. Foraminifera were collected from net tows in the Subantarctic and Polar Frontal Zones (SAZ and PFZ, respectively) south of Africa during winter 2015 and late…
Ocean circulation supplies the surface ocean with the nutrients that fuel global ocean productivity. However, the mechanisms and rates of water and nutrient transport from the deep ocean to the upper ocean are poorly known. Here, we use the nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate to place observational constraints on nutrient transport from the…
Surface sediment diatom-bound δ15N along a latitudinal transect of 170°W shows a previously unobserved increase to the South of the Antarctic Polar Front. The southward δ15N increase is best explained by the combination of two changes toward the South, a decrease in the isotope effect of nitrate assimilation (ε) and an increase in the degree of…
Using batch cultures, the 15N/14N (hereafter δ15N) of diatom-bound organic matter was measured and compared to the δ15N of total diatom biomass during the progressive consumption of a nitrate pool in four polar diatom species (Fragilariopsis cylindrus, Fragilariopsis kerguelensis, Pseudo-nitzschia seriata, and Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii) and…
Taxon-specific nitrogen (N) isotope data from the summertime Sargasso Sea have previously suggested reliance of prokaryotic phytoplankton on regenerated N but a greater importance of nitrate assimilation for eukaryotic phytoplankton. To investigate this further, particles collected in the summer from 100 m at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series…
High-resolution records of the nitrogen isotopic composition of organic matter (δ15Norg), opal content, and opal accumulation rates from the central Gulf of California reveal large and abrupt variations during deglaciation and gradual Holocene changes coincident with climatic changes recorded in the North Atlantic. Homogenous sediments with…
Ninety per cent of marine organic matter burial occurs in continental margin sediments, where a substantial fraction of organic carbon escapes oxidation and enters long-term geologic storage within sedimentary rocks. In such environments, microbial metabolism is limited by the diffusive supply of electron acceptors. One strategy to optimize energy…
Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and then nitrate, is often discounted as a source of nitrate in euphotic zone waters due to photoinhibition of nitrifying microorganisms and/or competition for ammonium with phytoplankton. However, there have also been counterarguments that nitrification represents a significant “regenerated”…
The equatorial Pacific Ocean is one of the major high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions in the global ocean. In such regions, the consumption of the available macro-nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate is thought to be limited in part by the low abundance of the critical micro-nutrient iron1. Greater atmospheric dust deposition2 could have…
One potential mechanism for lowering atmospheric CO2 during glacial times is an increase in the fraction of the global ocean ventilated by the North Atlantic, which produces deep water with a low concentration of unused nutrients and thus drives the ocean s biological pump to a high efficiency. However, the data indicate that during glacial times,…
In the context of gradual Cenozoic cooling, the timing of the onset of significant Northern Hemisphere glaciation 2.7 million years ago is consistent with Milankovitch s orbital theory, which posited that ice sheets grow when polar summertime insolation and temperature are low. However, the role of moisture supply in the initiation of large…
Surface nitrate concentration is a potentially useful diagnostic in reconstructing the past circulation of high-latitude North Atlantic waters. Moreover, nutrient consumption in the North Atlantic surface impacts the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. To reconstruct nutrient conditions in the subpolar North Atlantic region during the…