Nitrogen is an essential element in any form of life from bacteria to complex metazoans due to its necessity for protein biosynthesis. It is regarded as the limiting nutrient for phytoplankton production in most regions of the open ocean, especially in the surface waters of the tropics and subtropics [1–3]. The estimated loss of available nitrogen by new production and export in surface waters often exceeds the nitrate flux by diapycnal mixing of deeper water into the euphotic zone [3, 4], especially as the substitution of the lost nitrate from deeper layers is a slow process in stratified waters. It is assumed that biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (N2) by diazotrophic cyanobacteria balances the loss in nutrient-poor regions, fuelling up to half of the new production [5] and therefore playing an important role in carbon uptake in the marine environment.
Cyanobacteria of the genus Trichodesmium are considered to be the dominant N2 binding organism in tropical and subtropical oceans, affecting the influx of new nitrogen in global marine ecosystems [3, 6–9] by making up for 30–80% of oceanic N2-fixation rates [10]. Trichomes of Trichodesmium can occur as macroscopic aggregates and can produce enormous blooms; for example, the red tides caused by Trichodesmium erythraeum give the Red Sea its name. As the N2 binding enzyme nitrogenase is rapidly inactivated by O2, other diazotroph bacteria separate N2 fixation from O2 evolving photosynthesis either in time, i.e., N2 fixation by night, or in space by forming heterocysts to protect the enzyme. However, Trichodesmium is a nonheterocystous bacterium that performs N2 fixation in the daytime. Bergmann and Carpenter [11] found spatial nitrogenase sequestration mechanisms in Trichodesmium, a cell type subsequently termed diazocytes.
While most of the studies describe N2 fixation in tropical and subtropical regions of the open ocean [2, 3, 5, 12–14], only few is known about the contribution of diazotrophic bacteria to the nitrogen budget in coastal waters [15–17] and upwelling systems [18, 19]. A recent study by Tang et al. [17] showed unexpectedly increasing underway N2-fixation rates from the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea to American coastal waters with the highest activities close to the coast, and some of the N2-fixation hotspots coincided with high phosphorus concentrations near the surface.
We investigated the distribution of Trichodesmium in the Benguela upwelling system (BUS), one of the most productive upwelling systems in the world [20]. It is located off the west coast of southern Africa, bordering Angola, Namibia and South Africa (Fig. 1). The productivity of the system is driven by strong alongshore trade winds and upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water into the euphotic zone. It is traditionally divided into a northern and a southern subsystem [21–23]. The northern BUS (nBUS) is located between the Angola-Benguela Front (14°S to 16°S), and the Lüderitz upwelling cell at approximately 26.30°S [24] is influenced by South Atlantic Central Water (SACW), intruding from the Angola Gyre. The southern BUS, fed by Eastern South Atlantic Central Water (ESACW) flowing in from the Cape Basin (sBUS), is limited in the south by the warm Agulhas Current at 34°S. The Agulhas Current is a strong warm and salty western boundary current originating in the southwestern Indian Ocean, following the continental shelf from Maputo to the Agulhas Bank, where it leaves the shelf and abruptly turns eastward in the Agulhas retroflection. By turning around rings detach from the current moving onward into the South Atlantic Ocean [25–27]. This ‘Agulhas leakage’ strongly varies on interannual to decadal timescales [28]. Marshall et al. [29] traced water mass circulations in the Agulhas Current using nitrate isotopes. They stated that nitrogen fixation occurs in the Agulhas Current, resulting in a low δ15N signature, and Agulhas rings indicate leakage of low-δ15N nitrogen into the South Atlantic. However, little is known about the interoceanic transport pathways of plankton organisms such as Trichodesmium in these rings or eddies.
Reports of the presence of Trichodesmium or indications of N2 fixation in the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS) are inconsistent. While Wasmund et al. [19] found very low abundances of Trichodesmium and no evidence of N2 fixation in the northern BUS, Sohm et al. [18] reported elevated N2 fixation rates in or near the Benguela Current compared to the oligotrophic South Atlantic Gyre. They found that high NO3− concentrations did not exclude N2 fixation in upwelling areas.
A remotely operated towed vehicle (TRIAXUS), equipped with several sensors and an attached Video Plankton Recorder (VPR), enables simultaneous measurements of biogeochemical and physical water mass properties combined with the occurrence of planktonic organisms over large distances. Because Trichodesmium colonies are easily damaged by conventional net hauls, Niskin bottles or buckets [30], noninvasive techniques such as underwater camera systems seem to be more appropriate to study these objects. By using the TRIAXUS mounted VPR, we will provide the first evidence of possible interoceanic transport pathways of Trichodesmium from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean as well as provide information about its distribution in the Benguela upwelling region.