Transatlantic Abundance of the N 2 -Fixing Colonial Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Davis, Cabell S., McGillicuddy, Dennis J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2006
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1123570; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1123570

Colonial diazotrophic cyanobacteria of the genus Trichodesmium are thought to play a significant role in the input of new nitrogen to upper layers of the tropical and subtropical oceanic ecosystems that cover nearly half of Earth's surface. Here we describe results of a transatlantic survey in which a noninvasive underwater digital microscope (the video plankton recorder), was towed across the North Atlantic at 6 meters per second while undulating between the surface and 130 meters. Colony abundance had a basin-scale trend, a clear association with anticyclonic eddies, and was not affected by hurricane-forced mixing. Subsurface abundance was higher than previously reported, which has important implications for the global ocean nitrogen cycle.