N2-fixing bacteria can counter water deoxygenation, study finds

Recently spotted in deep low-oxygen waters, N2-fixing bacteria have since then been suspected of playing a role in water deoxygenation – one in many consequences of climate change. It turns out not only that they do play a role, but that it is a mitigating – rather than worsening – one.

Ocean deoxygenation is a widely-discussed consequence of climate change. But the evolution of its nitrogen budget is equally important. On the one hand, nitrogen is contained in excrement, fertilisers and fossil fuels: it eventually ends up in rivers and oceans, feeds algae and, as these algae die and sink, they deplete water’s oxygen. But on the other hand, nitrogen feeds phytoplankton – making it an essential part of the ocean’s food chain.

Further details: N2-fixing bacteria can counter water deoxygenation, study finds