BIOLOGY Concerning the biological nitrogen fixation on Surtsey BY

• Main Authors: Lars Eric Henriksson, Elisabet Henriksson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Surtsey
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.575.6985; http://www.surtsey.is/SRS_publ/1982-IX/1982_IX_2_01.pdf

T h e possibility to follow u p the succession of microbial life in a virgin soil quite free from organic substances has been fascinating. I n 1972, five years after the eruptions ended on Surtsey, soil samples could still be gathered which did not sho\v any evidence of microbial life (Henriks-son and Henriksson 1974 a). During the initial period he mineral nitrogen content in the6t1rcs-ey soil was at such a low level that it was hardly detectable (Ponnamperuma et al. 1967). Thus it was not unexpected that free-living blue-green algae with the ability to use sun ener-gy and the molecular nitrogen of the air for growth and development, were anlong the prim-ary immigrants ot Surtsey (Schwabe 1970, 1974). These algae, which nowadays frequently occur on the island, are also found to live in associations