Takuhei Shiozaki

Abstract Nitrogen‐fixing microorganisms (diazotrophs) provide biologically available nitrogen to plankton communities and thereby greatly influence the productivity in many marine regions. Various cyanobacterial groups have traditionally been considered the major oceanic diazotrophs, but later noncyanobacterial and presumably heterotrophic diazotrophs were also found to be widespread and potentially important in nitrogen fixation. However, the distribution and activity of different diazotroph gr

The distribution of N 2 fixation was examined using a 15 N 2 tracer with accompanying measurements of abundance of Trichodesmium spp. and Richelia intracellularis , nitrate plus nitrite (N+N) and soluble reactive phosphorus at the nanomolar level, and primary production in the western and central Pacific Ocean. N 2 fixation occurred only in >∼20°C oligotrophic (i.e., N+N < 100 n M ) waters except at a station in the equatorial upwelling zone where N+N was 1880 n M . High N 2 fixation rates

We examined nitrification in the euphotic zone, its impact on the nitrogen cycles, and the controlling factors along a 7500 km transect from the equatorial Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Ammonia oxidation occurred in the euphotic zone at most of the stations. The gene and transcript abundances for ammonia oxidation indicated that the shallow clade archaea were the major ammonia oxidizers throughout the study regions. Ammonia oxidation accounted for up to 87.4% (average 55.6%) of the rate of

Abstract Marine nitrogen fixation occurs not only in subtropical and tropical regions but also in colder regions. However, the distribution of diazotrophs, nitrogen fixation rate, and its contribution to the nitrogen cycle in the Arctic Ocean remain poorly understood. We examined the diazotroph community structure and activity in the shelf and off‐shelf regions of the Chukchi Sea, western Arctic Ocean, during late summer 2015. The nitrate and ammonium assimilation rates were determined simultane

Abstract Diazotrophy in the Indian Ocean is poorly understood compared to that in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We first examined the basin‐scale community structure of diazotrophs and their nitrogen fixation activity within the euphotic zone during the northeast monsoon period along about 69°E from 17°N to 20°S in the oligotrophic Indian Ocean, where a shallow nitracline (49–59 m) prevailed widely and the sea surface temperature (SST) was above 25°C. Phosphate was detectable at the surface t

Abstract We describe a new mechanism for the island mass effect fueled by nitrogen fixation. The nitrogen fixation activities and δ 15 N of suspended particles in the surface water in the South Pacific were examined. Active nitrogen fixation and abundant Trichodesmium spp. were observed near islands in the western subtropical region, which was attributable to the material supplied by land runoff. High primary production was extensively centered around the islands and was characterized by low δ 1

Abstract. Nitrogen fixation in temperate oceans is a potentially important, but poorly understood process that may influence the marine nitrogen budget. This study determined seasonal variations in nitrogen fixation and the diazotroph community within the euphotic zone in the temperate coastal region of the northwestern North Pacific. Nitrogen fixation as high as 13.6 nmol N L−1 d−1 was measured from early summer to fall when the surface temperature exceeded 14.2 °C (but was lower than 24.3 °C)

Abstract The import of nitrogen via dinitrogen fixation supports primary production, particularly in the oligotrophic ocean; however, to what extent dinitrogen fixation influences primary production, and the role of specific types of diazotrophs, remains poorly understood. We examined the relationship between primary production and dinitrogen fixation together with diazotroph community structure in the oligotrophic western and eastern South Pacific Ocean and found that dinitrogen fixation was hi

The western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) is a region of low nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations in which new production is generally considered to be supported by upward fluxes of nitrate from the deep water. A 19 d observation of nitrogen (N 2 ) fixation activity and diazotroph abundance along with primary production and nitrate assimilation rate was made at a fixed station in the WPWP. N 2 fixation activities accounted for less than half the nitrate assimilation in the first 9 d, then rapidly

Abstract Nitrification is susceptible to changes in light and pH and, thus, could be influenced by recent sea ice reductions and acidification in the Arctic Ocean. We investigated the sensitivity of nitrification to light, pH, and substrate availability in a natural nitrifier community of the Arctic Ocean. Nitrification was active near the bottom of the shelf region (<60 m) and in the halocline layer (50–200 m) of the Arctic basin, where ammonium was abundant, but was low in the ammonium‐depl

Satellite imagery and oceanographic data collected between 2003 and 2009 were used to examine factors controlling the onset timing and magnitude of spring algal blooms in the northwestern North Pacific. Consistent with the critical depth hypothesis, the spring bloom onsets coincided with the mixed layer depth (MLD) shoaling in the north of the Kuroshio extension and in Oyashio, where complex frontal physical structures and turbulence weakening, respectively, would be responsible for the MLD shoa

We investigated the composition and distribution of diazotrophs in waters of the Kuroshio, the "hot spot" of nitrogen fixation in the Pacific Ocean, as well as in adjacent waters and the North Pacific tropical gyre (NPTG). Specifically, we explored the abundance of nifH in seven commonly observed diazotrophs: Trichodesmium, Crocosphaera, UCYN-A, UCYN-C, Richelia associated with Rhizosolenia (RR) or Hemiaulus (HR) and a gammaproteobacterium (γ-24774A11). The surface diazotroph community in the Ku

Abstract. As a key biogeochemical pathway in the marine nitrogen cycle, nitrification (ammonia oxidation and nitrite oxidation) converts the most reduced form of nitrogen – ammonium–ammonia (NH4+–NH3) – into the oxidized species nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-). In the ocean, these processes are mainly performed by ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). By transforming nitrogen speciation and providing substrates for nitrogen removal, nitrificat