1 The biomass of all living organisms consists of around 30 of the 92 naturally occurring elements (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Table S1)1,2. All organisms must obtain chemical forms of these essential elements, termed nutrients, from their external environment. The key role that nutrients play in controlling upper-ocean productivity has long been recognized3–5. Research over recent decades, howe...

Offspring of obese and diabetic mothers are at increased risk of being born with excess adiposity as a consequence of their intrauterine environment. Excessive fetal fat accretion reflects additional placental nutrient transfer, suggesting an effect of the maternal environment on placental function. High plasma levels of particular nutrients in obese and diabetic mothers are likely to be the im...

Nothofagus pumilio (lenga) forests form monocultures from sea level to timberline in Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. Past studies suggested that the life form change from erect forest to krummholz had advantages to forest function. Aboveground net primary productivity (NPP) and organic matter production per unit leaf area and growing season day were higher in krummholz than in adjacent short erect ...

Wood contains the majority of the nutrients in tropical trees, yet controls over wood nutrient concentrations and their function are poorly understood. We measured wood nutrient concentrations in 106 tree species in 10 forest plots spanning a regional fertility gradient in Panama. For a subset of species, we quantified foliar nutrients and wood density to test whether wood nutrients scale with ...

Recent investigations of nutrient-limited productivity in coral reef macroalgae have led to the conclusion that phosphorus, rather than nitrogen, is the primary limiting nutrient. In this study, comparison of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen:phosphorus ratio in the water column of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, with tissue nitrogen:phosphorus ratios in macroalgae from Kaneohe Bay suggested that nitrogen,...

Unicellular algae such as phytoplankton and benthic microalgae have an elemental ratio of carbon to nitrogen to phosphorus (C/N/P) of approximately 106:16:1, known as the Redfield ratio. Benthic plants, including benthic macroalgae and seagrass, have a significantly different and more variable C/N/P ratio, with a median of 550:30:1, herein called the Atkinson ratio. In this paper, the implicati...

Most bacteria in the ocean can be motile. Chemotaxis allows bacteria to detect nutrient gradients, and hence motility is believed to serve as a method of approaching sources of food. This picture is well established in a stagnant environment. In the ocean a shear microenvironment is associated with turbulence. This shear flow prevents clustering of bacteria around local nutrient sources if they...

The effect of oral co-administration of nutrients on intestinal drug absorption is a function of drug dissolution, gastrointestinal (GI) residence time and intestinal membrane transport. Nutrient effects on GI residence time may influence the availability of the drug for absorption when dissolution is rate controlling; alternatively, nutrient effects on membrane transport pathways may dictate v...