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Global importance of nitrogen fixation across inland and coastal waters

Fulweiler, Robinson W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0871-4246; Rinehart, Shelby; Taylor, Jason ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9240-2151; Kelly, Michelle C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0123-2527; Berberich, Megan E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5363-892X; Ray, Nicholas E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1959-3120; Oczkowski, Autumn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2421-0956; Balint, Sawyer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1088-0358; Benavides, Mar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9502-108X; Church, Matthew J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6166-8579; Loeks, Brianna; Newell, Silvia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0684-3100; Olofsson, Malin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4170-9975; Oppong, Jimmy Clifford ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8678-4931; Roley, Sarah S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6733-9338; Vizza, Carmella ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9269-0357; Wilson, Samuel T.; Chowdhury, Subhadeep ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3508-9805; Groffman, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8371-6255; Scott, J. Thad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9487-9698; Marcarelli, Amy M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4175-9211. 2025 Global importance of nitrogen fixation across inland and coastal waters. Science, 388 (6752). 1205-1209. 10.1126/science.adt1511

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Abstract/Summary

Biological nitrogen fixation is a key driver of global primary production and climate. Decades of effort have repeatedly updated nitrogen fixation estimates for terrestrial and open ocean systems, yet other aquatic systems in between have largely been ignored. Here we present an evaluation of nitrogen fixation for inland and coastal waters. We demonstrate that water column and sediment nitrogen fixation is ubiquitous across these diverse aquatic habitats, with rates ranging six orders of magnitude. We conservatively estimate that, despite accounting for less than 10% of the global surface area, inland and coastal aquatic systems fix 40 (30 to 54) teragrams of nitrogen per year, equivalent to 15% of the nitrogen fixed on land and in the open ocean. Inland systems contribute more than half of this biological nitrogen fixation.

Item Type: Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1126/science.adt1511
ISSN: 0036-8075
Date made live: 10 Jul 2025 13:01 +0 (UTC)
URI: https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/539848

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