With humans having an increasing impact on the planet, the interactions between the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle and climate are expected to become an increasingly important determinant of the Earth system.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout



References
Falkowski, P. G. et al. The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of Earth as a system. Science 290, 291â296 (2000).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. in Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al.) 1â18 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007).
Galloway, J. N. et al. The nitrogen cascade. Bioscience 53, 341â356 (2003).
Sarmiento, J. L. & Gruber, N. Anthropogenic carbon sinks. Physics Today 55, 30â36 (2002).
Schimel, D. S. et al. Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems. Nature 414, 169â172 (2001).
Hyvönen, R. et al. Impact of long-term nitrogen addition on carbon stocks in trees and soils in northern Europe. Biogeochemistry, doi:10.1007/s10533-007-9121-3 (2007).
Rabalais, N. N. Nitrogen in aquatic environments. Ambio 31, 102â112 (2002).
Sterner, R. W. & Elser, J. J. Ecological stoichiometry: the Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2002).
Field, C. B., Behrenfeld, M. J., Randerson, J. & Falkowski, P. Primary productivity of the biosphere: an integration of terrestrial and oceanic components. Science 281, 237â240 (1998).
Gruber, N. in Carbon Climate Interactions (eds Oguz, T. & Follows, M.) 97â148 (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 2004).
Codispoti, L. A. An oceanic fixed nitrogen sink exceeding 400 Tg N aâ1 vs the concept of homeostasis in the fixed-nitrogen inventory. Biogeosciences 3, 1203â1246 (2006).
Deutsch, C., Sarmiento, J. L., Sigman, D. M., Gruber, N. & Dunne, J. P. Spatial coupling of nitrogen inputs and losses in the ocean. Nature 445, 163â167 (2007).
Galloway, J. N. et al. Nitrogen cycles: past, present, future. Biogeochemistry 70, 153â226 (2004).
Seitzinger, S. et al. Denitrification across landscapes and waterscapes: a synthesis. Ecol. Appl. 16, 2064â2090 (2006).
Flückiger, J. et al. N2O and CH4 variations during the last glacial epoch: insight into global processes. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 18, 1â14 (2004).
Altabet, M. A., Higginson, M. J. & Murray, D. W. The effect of millennial-scale changes in Arabian Sea denitrification on atmospheric CO2 . Nature 415, 159â162 (2002).
Denman, K. L. et al. in Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al.) 499â587 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007).
Riebesell, U. et al. Enhanced biological carbon consumption in a high CO2 ocean. Nature 450, 545â548 (2007).
Barcelos e Ramos, J., Biswas, H., Schulz, K. G., LaRoche, J. & Riebesell, U. Effect of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on the marine nitrogen fixer Trichodesmium . Global Biogeochem. Cycles 21, doi:10.1029/2006GB002898 (2007).
Austin, A. T. et al. in Interactions of the Major Biogeochemical Cycles (eds Melillo, J. M., Field, C. B. & Moldan, B.) Ch. 3, 15â46 (Island, Washington DC, 2003).
Gruber, N. in Nitrogen in the Marine Environment 2nd edn (eds Capone, D. G., Bronk, D. A., Mulholland, M. R. & Carpenter, E.) Ch. 1 (Academic, San Diego, in the press).
Blunier, T. & Brook, E. J. Timing of millenial-scale climate change in Antarctica and Greenland during the last glacial period. Science 291, 109â112 (2001).
Siegenthaler, U. et al. Stable carbon cycleâclimate relationship during the Late Pleistocene. Science 310, 1313â1317 (2005).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by funds from ETH Zurich. We thank J. Flückiger for helping us with the ice-core records.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at http://npg.nature.com/reprints.
Correspondence should be addressed to N.G. ([email protected]).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gruber, N., Galloway, J. An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle. Nature 451, 293â296 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06592
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06592