New insights into bacterial acquisition of phosphorus in the surface ocean

摘要

Since 1958 when Alfred C. Red-field (1) recognized the similarity between the ratios of elements in living biomass and those dissolved in the surrounding scawater, we have understood that microorganisms largely control the concentrations, distribution, and molecular makeup of nutritional resources in the ocean. The primary elemental ingredients for life, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), are assembled, disassembled, transformed, and consumed by marine microorganisms, resulting in a steady cycling of elements between intracellu-lar, inorganic, and organic reservoirs.