Benthic Nitrogen Fixation

Table 24.3 Estimates of the Total Annual Contribution of Combined Nitrogen to the Global Nitrogen Cycle by Nitrogen Fixation in Benthic Marine Environments. ...

Capone, D.G. (1988) Benthic nitrogen fixation. In Nitrogen Cycling in Coastal Environments (Blackburn, T.H., and Sprensen, J., eds.), pp. 85-123, John Wiley, New York. 

O Neil, J. M., and Capone, D. G. (1996). Effects of elevated nutrients (ENCORE) on benthic nitrogen fixation and denitrification. Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Conference, Panama, June 21—29. 

Nitrogen fixation in the marine environment occurs in benthic (sediments and microbial mats) and pelagic environments, and in salt marsh soils (see Carpenter and Capone, Chapter 4, this volume). Since very diverse microorganisms that span the Bacteria and Archaea domains of life can fix nitrogen, it is often difficult to ascertain which organisms are responsible for observed nitrogen fixation rates. Our discussion of the application of molecular approaches to the study of marine nitrogen fixation is brief because it has been reviewed extensively elsewhere (Carpenter and Capone, Chapter 4, this volume Foster and O MuUan Chapter 27, this volume Scanlan and Post, Chapter 24, this volume Paerl and Zehr, 2000 Zehr and Ward, 2002 Zehr et al., 2003). 

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