Nitrogen is vital for all known life. Yet most nitrogen on Earth is in the atmosphere as di-nitrogen gas, which many organisms can’t use. Fortunately, there are microbes that can tap into this ...

Most organisms require nitrogen to produce biological molecules, such as nucleotides and amino acids, but until recently, only prokaryotes were known to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. “It’s a very ...

It has puzzled scientists for years whether and how bacteria, that live from dissolved organic matter in marine waters, can carry out N 2 fixation. It was assumed that the high levels of oxygen ...

Scientists shed light on an unexpected partnership: A marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. This symbiosis likely plays a ...

The Arctic Ocean, once locked in a vault of thick, old ice, now is transforming at lightspeed. Temperatures there are increasing at up to four times the rate of the planet overall, melting sea ice ...

Overestimated nitrogen availability has led climate models to exaggerate how much plant growth can offset rising CO2 levels. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major driver of ...