News

Marine anoxia initiates giant sulfur-oxidizing bacterial mat proliferation and associated changes in benthic nitrogen, sulfur, and iron cycling...

Full title: "Marine anoxia initiates giant sulfur-oxidizing bacterial mat proliferation and associated changes in benthic nitrogen, sulfur, and iron cycling in the Santa Barbara Basin, California Borderland"

Abstract.

"The Santa Barbara Basin naturally experiences transient deoxygenation due to its unique geological setting in the southern California Borderland and seasonal changes in ocean currents. Long-term measurements of the basin showed that anoxic events and subsequent nitrate exhaustion in the bottom waters have been occurring more frequently [...]".

 

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: David J. Yousavich et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-789-2024

Read the full article here.


The response of nitrogen and sulfur cycles to ocean deoxygenation across the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary

Abstract.

"The Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) is a greenhouse episode of severe marine anoxia at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. This time interval is characterized by rising sea surface temperature, enhanced marine biological productivity, and widespread occurrence of organic-rich black shales. With an export of biological production to the deep ocean, organisms consume vast amounts of oxygen and subsequently utilize nitrate and sulfate as electron acceptors in organic matter degradation, thereby affecting biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and sulfur. [...]".

 

Source: Science Direct
Authors: Ruixiang Zhai et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2023.104182

Read the full article here.


Phytoplankton dynamics and nitrogen cycling during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (Cenomanian/Turonian) in the upwelling zone of the NE proto-North Atlantic

Abstract. 

"The Cenomanian-Turonian (Late Cretaceous) climate warming was closely coupled to profound perturbations of biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems. The occurrence of organic matter-rich sediments across various depositional environments of the proto-North Atlantic hereby marks severe oxygen-deficient conditions, culminating in Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE 2) at the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary. Here we combine bulk, isotope and molecular geochemical techniques to characterize trends in organic matter accumulation and its relationship to biogeochemical cycling (nitrogen, carbon) and marine phytoplankton community shifts [...]". 

 

Source: Science Direct
Authors: Wolfgang Ruebsam & Lorenz Schwark
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2023.104117

Read the full article here.


Prokaryotic community dynamics and nitrogen-cycling genes in an oxygen-deficient upwelling system during La Niña and El Niño conditions

Abstract. 

"Dissolved oxygen regulates microbial distribution and nitrogen cycling and, therefore, ocean productivity and Earth's climate. To date, the assembly of microbial communities in relation to oceanographic changes due to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) remains poorly understood in oxygen minimum zones (OMZ). The Mexican Pacific upwelling system supports high productivity and a permanent OMZ. Here, the spatiotemporal distribution of the prokaryotic community and nitrogen-cycling genes was investigated along a repeated transect subjected to varying oceanographic conditions associated with La Niña in 2018 and El Niño in 2019. [...]".

 

Source: Wiley Online Library 
Authors: Silvia Pajares et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16362

Read the full article here.


Biogeochemical feedbacks may amplify ongoing and future ocean deoxygenation: a case study from the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone

Abstract.

"A new box model is employed to simulate the oxygen-dependent cycling of nutrients in the Peruvian oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Model results and data for the present state of the OMZ indicate that dissolved iron is the limiting nutrient for primary production and is provided by the release of dissolved ferrous iron from shelf and slope sediments. Most of the removal of reactive nitrogen occurs by anaerobic oxidation of ammonium where ammonium is delivered by aerobic organic nitrogen degradation. Model experiments simulating the effects of ocean deoxygenation and warming show that the productivity of the Peruvian OMZ will increase due to the enhanced release of dissolved iron from shelf and slope sediments. A positive feedback loop rooted in the oxygen-dependent benthic iron release amplifies, both, the productivity rise and oxygen decline in ambient bottom waters. [...]". 

 

Source: Biogeochemistry

Authors: Klaus Wallmann et al.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00908-w 

Read the full article here.


Response of benthic nitrogen cycling to estuarine hypoxia

Abstract.

"The effects of bottom water oxygen concentration on sediment oxygen uptake, oxygen penetration depth, nitrate and ammonium fluxes, anammox, denitrification, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, nitrification, and mineralization were investigated off the Changjiang estuary and its adjacent East China Sea, by combining a seasonal comparison[...]"

 

Source: ASLO- Association for the Sciences Limnology and Oceanography
Authors: Guodong Song et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11630

Read the full article here.


Reactive Nitrogen Cycling in the Atmosphere and Ocean

Abstract.

"The budget of reactive nitrogen (Nr; oxidized and reduced inorganic and organic forms of nitrogen) has at least doubled since the preindustrial era due to human activities. Excess Nr causes significant detrimental effects on many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; less is known about the impact on the open ocean. Nr deposition may already rival biological N2 fixation quantitatively and will likely continue to rise.[...]"

 

Source: Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Authors: Katye E. Altieri et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-083120-052147

Read the full article here.


Spatial variations in sedimentary N-transformation rates in the North Sea (German Bight)

Abstract.

"In this study, we investigate the role of sedimentary N cycling in the southern North Sea. We present a budget of ammonification, nitrification and sedimentary NO−3 consumption and denitrification in contrasting sediment types of the German Bight (southern North Sea), including novel net ammonification rates. [...]"

Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: Alexander Bratek et al.
DOI: 10.5194/bg-17-2839-2020

Read the full article here.


Changing perspectives in marine nitrogen fixation

Abstract.

"Biological dinitrogen (N2) fixation, the reduction of atmospheric N2 to ammonia, is important for maintaining the fertility of the oceans by providing biologically useful nitrogen to support primary organic matter production (i.e., carbon dioxide fixation). N2 fixation offsets the removal of combined nitrogen by microbial denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and export to the deep sea. For several decades, there has been a lack of consensus as to whether losses of N through microbial removal pathways are balanced by biological nitrogen fixation, along with other inputs such as atmospheric nitrogen deposition and terrestrial runoff. [...]"

Source: Science
Authors: Jonathan P. Zehr1 and Douglas G. Capone
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay9514

Read the full article here.


Shedding New Light on the Nitrogen Cycle in the Dark Ocean

"Every year, the Mississippi River dumps around 1.4 million metric tons of nitrogen into the Gulf of Mexico, much of it runoff from agricultural fertilizer. This nitrogen can lead to algal blooms, which in turn deplete oxygen concentrations in the water, creating hypoxic dead zones. The nitrogen cycle is a phenomenon environmental scientists would really like to understand better. “As humans, we do put a lot of reactive nitrogen compounds into the ocean, especially in coastal regions, by…river runoff,” said Katharina Kitzinger of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. “It’s really crucial to understand how microbes turn over this excess nitrogen that we put into the environment. [...]”"

Read the full article here


Showing 1 - 10 of 20 results.
Items per Page 10
of 2

Newsletter

It is possible to subscribe to our email newsletter list.

Depending on the amount of publications, we will summarize the activities on this blog in a newsletter for everyone not following the blog regularly.

If you want to subscribe to the email list to receive the newsletter, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de with the header "subscribe".

If you want to unsubscribe from the newsletter, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de with the header "unsubscribe".

You cannot forward any messages as a regular member to the list. If you want to suggest new articles or would like to contact us because of any other issue, please send an email to sfb754@geomar.de.

GOOD Social Media

To follow GOOD on LinkedIn, please visit here.
 

To follow GOOD on Twitter, please visit here.


To follow GOOD on Blue Sky, please visit here