1997, Pancost et al. 1997, Rau et al. 2001). Finally, macroscopic marine plants, such as kelp and sea grass, have substantially higher δ13C values than phytoplankton. Using data compiled from the literature, Clementz and Koch (2001) showed that major marine and marginal marine habitat types (open ocean, nearshore, sea grass, kelp forests) have distinct δ13C values. The δ13C values of primary producers and POM also vary predictably among ocean basins. High-latitude pelagic ecosystems typically have much lower δ13C values than lower latitude ecosystems. In colder regions, aqueous

[CO2] is high due to seasonally low photosynthetic selleck screening library rates, vertical mixing of a water column that is not strongly thermally stratified, and the greater solubility of CO2. Under high aqueous [CO2], the fractionation associated with photosynthetic CO2 uptake is strongly expressed, leading to low δ13C values. The converse applies in the warm, well lit, stratified waters of temperate and equatorial latitudes. Finally, taxon-specific biological variables and local conditions must be important, because meridional gradients in POM δ13C values are different in the southern vs. northern oceans (Goericke and Fry 1994). p38 MAPK activity The δ15N values of plankton at the base of marine food webs (and particulate organic nitrogen

or PON) also show spatial gradients (discussion based on Montoya 2007). N2 fixation by cyanobacteria, which is important in oligotrophic regions such as the North selleckchem Pacific Subtropical Gyre or the Sargasso Sea, generates organic matter with low δ15N values (−2–0‰). In most regions, however, marine production is fueled by nitrate. The δ15N values of phytoplankton in these regions reflects two factors: (1) the δ15N values of sources of nitrate to the photic zone, especially the upwelling of nitrate-rich deep water, and (2) whether or not nitrate uptake by phytoplankton approaches 100%. Where nitrate uptake is complete (the situation in most regions), the annually integrated δ15N value of primary production must equal the δ15N value of inputs. The vast subsurface nitrate pool that mixes into the photic zone averages approximately +5‰. However,

below highly productive regions, pelagic deep water can become suboxic to anoxic. In the absence of adequate O2, bacteria turn to nitrate to respire organic matter (denitrification), which preferentially removes 14N-enriched nitrate and leaves the residual nitrate strongly 15N-enriched (+15‰–+20‰). Geographic differences in upwelling intensity and the extent of subsurface denitrification create large-scale spatial differences in the δ15N value of phytoplankton. Finally, if uptake of nitrate is incomplete, then marine organic matter can have lower δ15N values, because phytoplankton preferentially assimilate 14N-enriched nitrate. Environmental factors that might affect the δ18O value of ambient water for marine mammals are few.