Mystery Solved: Marine Microbe Is Source of Rare Nutrient
Trichodesmium has important role in nitrogen cycle and carbon
sequestration FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Relations Office
September 28, 2009 A new study of microscopic marine microbes,
called phytoplankton, by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) and the University of South Carolina has
solved a ten-year-old mystery about the source of an essential
nutrient in the ocean. Roughly a decade ago scientists
discovered a rare form of organic phosphorus in marine organic
matter. Not only were the researchers surprised to find this
form of phosphorus, called phosphonate, but the concentrations
in which it was found were very high, throughout the ocean.
Scientists hypothesized that phosphonate is produced and
consumed in the ocean, but no one understood where it came from
and why it was so abundant. Enter Trichodesmium. In 2006, WHOI
biologist Sonya Dyhrman along with other WHOI colleagues
initiated a field and laboratory study with this ph