Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-23-2025

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

Biological nitrogen fixation is the conversion of dinitrogen (N2) gas into bioavailable nitrogen by microorganisms with consequences for primary production, ecosystem function, and global climate. Here we present a compiled dataset of 4793 nitrogen fixation (N2-fixation) rates measured in the water column and benthos of inland and coastal systems via the acetylene reduction assay, 15N2 labeling, or N2/Ar technique. While the data are distributed across seven continents, most observations (88%) are from the northern hemisphere. 15N2 labeling accounted for 67% of water column measurements, while the acetylene reduction assay accounted for 81% of benthic N2-fixation observations. Dataset median area-, volume-, and mass-normalized N2-fixation rates are 7.1 μmol N2-N m−2 h−1, 2.3 × 10−4 μmol N2-N L−1 h−1, and 4.8 × 10−4 μmol N2-N g−1 h−1, respectively. This dataset will facilitate future efforts to study and scale N2-fixation contributions across inland and coastal aquatic environments.

Publisher's Statement

© 2025 The Author(s). Limnology and Oceanography Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10459

Publication Title

Limnology and Oceanography Letters

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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