ArticleNature communications2021
Global distribution patterns of marine nitrogen-fixers by imaging and molecular methods.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed.
- Composition of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs in suspended and sinking particles is driven by productivity phase.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Key link between iron and the size structure of three major mesoplanktonic groups in the upper ocean.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Nitrogen fixation rates increase with diazotroph richness in the global ocean.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sediments as Potential Sources of Non-Cyanobacterial Diazotrophs in Arctic Sea Ice and Seawater.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- Nitrogen Fixation Associated withEnvironmental science & technology · 2026Article
- The interplay between the marine diazotrophApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Impact of diazotrophs on marine food webs and the biological carbon pump: progress and remaining challenges.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Nitrogen-fixing microbes gain genes in diverse types of living environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Oxygen-tolerant nitrogen fixation in a marine alga-colonizingApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Awaited paradigm shift in marine NNational science review · 2025Article
- Significant contribution of the unicellular cyanobacterium UCYN-B to oceanic nitrogen fixation.National science review · 2025Article
- Article
- Relationship Between Aquatic Fungal Diversity in Surface Water and Environmental Factors in Yunnan Dashanbao Black-Necked Crane National Nature Reserve, China.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Patterns and drivers of diatom diversity and abundance in the global ocean.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Unveiling the contribution of particle-associated non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs to NCommunications biology · 2025Article
- Particle-associated NScience advances · 2025Article
- Dynamics of diazotroph particle colonization in the Arctic Ocean.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Aggregation and remineralization ofISME communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Picoplankton nitrogen guilds in the tropical and subtropical oceans: From the surface to the deep.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nitrogen fixation has a critical role in marine primary production, yet our understanding of marine nitrogen-fixers (diazotrophs) is hindered by limited observations. Here, we report a quantitative image analysis pipeline combined with mapping of molecular markers for mining >2,000,000 images and >1300 metagenomes from surface, deep chlorophyll maximum and mesopelagic seawater samples across 6 size fractions (<0.2-2000 μm). We use this approach to characterise the diversity, abundance, biovolume and distribution of symbiotic, colony-forming and particle-associated diazotrophs at a global scale. We show that imaging and PCR-free molecular data are congruent. Sequence reads indicate diazotrophs are detected from the ultrasmall bacterioplankton (<0.2 μm) to mesoplankton (180-2000 μm) communities, while images predict numerous symbiotic and colony-forming diazotrophs (>20 µm). Using imaging and molecular data, we estimate that polyploidy can substantially affect gene abundances of symbiotic versus colony-forming diazotrophs. Our results support the canonical view that larger diazotrophs (>10 μm) dominate the tropical belts, while unicellular cyanobacterial and non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs are globally distributed in surface and mesopelagic layers. We describe co-occurring diazotrophic lineages of different lifestyles and identify high-density regions of diazotrophs in the global ocean. Overall, we provide an update of marine diazotroph biogeographical diversity and present a new bioimaging-bioinformatic workflow.
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