Abstract
Blooms of planktonic cyanobacteria occur in oligotrophic tropical and sub-tropical oceans and in the Baltic Sea. Intense N2 fixation during blooms may provide large inputs of new N to these waters. However, the temporal and areal extent of the blooms and the quantitative significance to upper ocean C and N cycling, while suspected to be high, remain unknown. Recently, several independent lines of research have concluded that open ocean N2 fixation, one component of new N input, may have been severely underestimated, and this may have been due to the difficulty in quantifying blooms.
Studies on the ecology and physiology of these bloom-forming cyanobacteria in the Baltic and tropical seas have proceeded with little previous scientific interchange between their respective researchers. The application of modern technologies, including molecular biological techniques and remote sensing (among others) has accelerated the pace of effort in each realm. The impetus for assessing the larger scale implications of N2 fixation in each system has yielded obvious parallel research themes and common questions. For instance, there is yet no clear consensus on the factors or circumstances leading to bloom formation, or of the fate of recently fixed N in either system.
In view of the recent increase in research, the diverse but often common nature of the investigations, and the wide geographic range of these bloom-forming cyanobacteria, it was timely that a comparison and synthesis of knowledge be made, and that future directions in research be charted. Hence, with support from NATO and the US NSF, an Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) was held in Bamberg, Germany, from May 26 to May 31, 1991 with the objective of discussing the comparative ecology and physiology of bloom-forming N2 fixing cyanobacteria in the sea.
The ARW brought together about 40 researchers from twelve countries to review and compare results from their respective areas and to develop an integrative framework for future coordinated research. The meeting promoted unique scientific interactions and exchanges across disciplines (molecular to megascopic levels) and between systems (tropical and temperate cyanobacteria), helped identify common questions, and stimulated cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches.
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Capone, D.G., Rueter, J.G., Carpenter, E.J. (1992). Overview of the Advanced Research Workshop on Bloom-Forming Marine Cyanobacteria. In: Carpenter, E.J., Capone, D.G., Rueter, J.G. (eds) Marine Pelagic Cyanobacteria: Trichodesmium and other Diazotrophs. NATO ASI Series, vol 362. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7977-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7977-3_1
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