Nitrogen fixation rates from samples collected in the Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean near Barrow, Alaska in August of 2011 (ArcticNITRO project)

Abstract

This dataset provides rates of nitrogen fixation for the coastal Chukchi Sea near Barrow, Alaska. Nitrogen fixation supplies ‘new’ nitrogen to the global ocean and supports primary production and impacts global biogeochemical cycles. Historically, nitrogen fixation in marine waters was considered a predominantly warm water process but this and other recent studies have shown that nitrogen fixation is occurring at low rates in polar waters. This dataset reports rates of 3.5 – 17.2 nmol N L-1 d-1 in the ice-free coastal Alaskan Arctic. Additional investigations of high-latitude marine diazotrophic physiology are required to refine these N2 fixation estimates. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the supplemental document 'Field_names.pdf', and a full dataset description is included in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: http://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/701789