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Ocean iron recycling illustration

Ocean iron recycling illustration
Ocean iron recycling illustration
Ocean iron recycling illustration
Ocean iron recycling illustration
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364555
Cook, John E.
Ocean iron recycling illustration
Illustration
01/10/2011
IronInEnzymes-300dpi.jpg
Oceanus online caption:
Got iron? It's an essential nutrient for living things, but it's scarce in the ocean. Scientists have found that a key marine bacterium may have evolved a remarkable biochemical way to recycle it and reduce its iron requirements by half.
Illustration text not on this version:
Iron is a scarce, essential nutrient in the ocean. One bacterium appears to halve its iron needs by recycling. It breaks down certain iron-containing enzymes used by day for photosynthesis, and at night builds different iron-containing enzymes to make ammonia.
Image of The Day caption:
Iron is essential for life, but is remarkably scarce in the ocean. WHOI scientists led by biogeochemist Mak Saito recently discovered that a key marine bacterium, Crocosphaera watsonii, may have evolved a biochemical trick to recycle the element and reduce the organism's iron requirments by half. The organism is named after WHOI microbiologist Stanley W. Watson who, in the 1970s, with colleagues Freddy Valois and John Waterbury, discovered the cyanobacteria s abundance and importance in the ocean.
Illustration by Jack Cook
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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