Temperature excludes N2-fixing heterocystous cyanobacteria in the tropical oceans

Marc Staal (), Filip J. R. Meysman and Lucas J. Stal
Additional contact information
Marc Staal: NIOO-KNAW
Filip J. R. Meysman: NIOO-KNAW
Lucas J. Stal: NIOO-KNAW

Nature, 2003, vol. 425, issue 6957, 504-507

Abstract: Abstract Whereas the non-heterocystous cyanobacteria Trichodesmium spp. are the dominant N2-fixing organisms in the tropical oceans1, heterocystous species dominate N2 fixation in freshwater lakes and brackish environments such as the Baltic Sea2. So far no satisfactory explanation for the absence of heterocystous cyanobacteria in the pelagic of the tropical oceans has been given, even though heterocysts would seem to represent an ideal strategy for protecting nitrogenase from being inactivated by O2, thereby enabling cyanobacteria to fix N2 and to perform photosynthesis simultaneously. Trichodesmium is capable of N2 fixation, apparently without needing to differentiate heterocysts3. Here we show that differences in the temperature dependence of O2 flux, respiration and N2 fixation activity explain how Trichodesmium performs better than heterocystous species at higher temperatures. Our results also explain why Trichodesmium is not successful in temperate or cold seas. The absence of heterocystous cyanobacteria in the pelagic zone of temperate and cold seas, however, requires another explanation.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01999 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:425:y:2003:i:6957:d:10.1038_nature01999

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature01999

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().