title: Marine microorganisms and global nutrient cycles.
abstract: The way that nutrients cycle through atmospheric, terrestrial, oceanic and associated biotic reservoirs can constrain rates of biological production and help structure ecosystems on land and in the sea. On a global scale, cycling of nutrients also affects the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Because of their capacity for rapid growth, marine microorganisms are a major component of global nutrient cycles. Understanding what controls their distributions and their diverse suite of nutrient transformations is a major challenge facing contemporary biological oceanographers. What is emerging is an appreciation of the previously unknown degree of complexity within the marine microbial community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2215, USA. arrigo@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Kevin R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Arrigo
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D009586:Nitrogen Fixation; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000378:metabolism*; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen