Glen’ s‘ all things nitrogen’ birthday blog! Glen Tarran, January 29, 2013- Hi, what did you do on your birthday?
- Oh, you know, ran a load of experiments to study the effect of ocean acidification on nitrogen cycling processes in the ocean around Antarctica.
Not what you would call a typical birthday activity, but it certainly beats a day in the office.
Glen in his birthday suit
@ Jeremy Young
My name’ s Glen Tarran from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and I’ m part of the team on board the RRS James Clark Ross that’ s conducting complex bioassay experiments to see how plankton react to increased carbon dioxide( CO2) concentrations and more acidic conditions. Why? We want to see what might happen in the oceans around the Antarctic in the future due to the increasing amount of CO2 dissolving into the oceans from the atmosphere as our climate changes. My part in all this is to help study the cycling of simple nitrogen compounds such as ammonium( NH4 +) and nitrite( NO2-) as they are used and transformed by the plankton, particularly phytoplankton or algae.
Nitrogen is really really important. As a gas, it makes up about 80 % of our atmosphere so we breathe it in all the time ……. and then we breathe it out again. However, when it’ s in compounds such as nitrate( NO3 +) or ammonium( NH4 +) it’ s a nutrient, or fertiliser for plants, both on land and in the oceans. Plants use it make amino acids and ultimately proteins and also DNA, the genetic code found in all living cells. Then the plants get eaten
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