| Summary: | This chapter describes how the activity of phytoplankton, bacteria, and Archaea drive the marine biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and how climate driven changes in plankton abundance and community composition influence these biogeochemical cycles in the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are essential elements required for all life on Earth. In the marine environment, dissolved inorganic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are utilized during phytoplankton growth to form organic material, which is respired and remineralized back to inorganic forms by the activity of bacteria, Archaea, and zooplankton. The net result of the photosynthesis, calcification, and respiration of marine plankton is the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, its sequestration to the deep ocean as organic and inorganic carbon, and its availability to fuel all fish and shellfish production.
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