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The Nitrogen Cycle in the Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

L. H. N. Cooper
L. H. N. Cooper
Affiliation:
Assistant Chemist at the Plymouth Laboratory
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Extract

The nitrogen cycle in the sea is reviewed as a whole in accordance with the scheme set out in Fig. 1. This summary includes only original matter, since the survey of other work does not admit of further condensation. The metabolism has been discussed of the following sources of nitrogen available to plants in sea water: mono, di and trimethylamine, trimethylamine oxide, urea, amino-acids, ammonia, hyponitrite, nitrite and nitrate. The methylamines will interfere in analyses of ammonia by distillation. Thermodynamic methods have been extensively used. The equilibrium between urea and ammonium cyanate at sea-water concentrations favours the cyanate. In sea water containing 28 mg. ammonia N per cu. m., the equilibrium mixture will contain fifteen times as much cyanate as urea. Hydrolysis of urea is probably purely chemical.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , November 1937 , pp. 183 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1937

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