Simple procedure for simultaneous recovery of dissolved inorganic and organic nitrogen in 15N-tracer experiments and improving the isotopic mass balance

Abstract

The procedure is suitable for application in DI15N-isotope dilution experiments and DON-release studies. The method is outlined here and used to balance the 15N budget in nitrate and ammonium uptake experiments conducted in the tropical North Atlantic by including, in addition to the substrate (DIN) and biomass (PON) pool, the DON pool. The use of glass-fiber filters (GF/F) for the collection of particulate matter produced a significant artifact and bottle containment effects are also shown to effect results. -from Authors