{"81451":{"#nid":"81451","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Phytoplankton \u0026 Climate Change:  Model Shows Long-Held Constant In Ocean Nutrient Ratio May Vary","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe future of these plants, called phytoplankton, is important because they exist at the base of the marine food web and represent a large source of food for fish. Also, they affect global climate by using atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPhytoplankton depend upon nitrogen and phosphorus to grow and, ultimately, replenish the supply of these nutrients in the ocean. Since the 1930s, scientists have known that the average nitrogen-to-phosphorus (N:P) nutrient ratio of phytoplankton closely mirrors the N:P ratio in the ocean - 15:1 for the plants and 16:1 for the water. Scientists accepted this as a constant called the Redfield ratio, named after the late Harvard University scientist Alfred Redfield.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Princeton University designed a mathematical model based on phytoplankton physiology. It shows a broad range of N:P ratios are possible depending on the conditions under which species grow and compete. This research - part of a larger biocomplexity research project led by Professor Simon A. Levin at Princeton -- is published in the May 13 edition of the journal Nature.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The take-home message is that this finding reinforces what some researchers have been saying lately - that N:P is not so fixed,\u0022 said lead author Christopher Klausmeier, a Georgia Tech assistant professor of biology and former postdoctoral fellow at Princeton. Other authors are Elena Litchman, also of Georgia Tech, and Tanguy Daufresne and Levin of Princeton. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This shows the range of ratios within which we could expect the ocean to change in the future,\u0022 Klausmeier said. \u0022Right now we have 16:1, but 500 years from now, if we have a different mix of growth conditions, then it might change the overall N:P needs of the phytoplankton community and the ocean.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"New research shows that what was once considered a universal constant in oceanography could actually vary in the future - depending on the ecological scenarios that affect competition for resources among microscopic marine plants.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-05-12 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:38","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtresearchnews.gatech.edu\/newsrelease\/nutrient.htm","title":"Plants adapt"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=\u0022\u003EContact  \u003C\/a\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}