commentary most direct effect of human activity on the whether they do so through phenotypic Nicolas Gruber is in the Environmental oceanic N cycle is the massive application or genotypic changes. Clear latitudinal Physics group, Institute of Biogeochemistry and of fertilizers full of bioavailable N, much trends in the N:P ratio of phytoplankton Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, of which makes its way to the ocean communities have been found14,15. It Switzerland. Curtis A. Deutsch is at the School of either via rivers or through long-range remains to be seen whether the shifting Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, atmospheric transport13. boundaries of major ocean biomes can Washington 98195, USA. Currently, we can only speculate alter the large-scale patterns of plankton e-mail:
[email protected] about how these perturbations, and their N:P ratios, and how that would modify the interactions, will alter the marine nitrogen stabilizing feedbacks. References cycle and affect its homeostasis. Given Redfield’s pioneering view of the 1. Redfield, A. C. in James Johnston Memorial Volume that most stabilizing feedbacks operate ocean as a system capable of homeostatic (ed. Daniel, R. J.) 176–192 (Univ. Press of Liverpool, 1934). 2. Redfield, A. C. Am. Sci. 46, 205–221 (1958). on timescales of decades and longer, it is regulation helped pave the way for the 3. Deutsch, C., Sigman, D. M., Thunell, R. C., Meckler, A. N. & likely that we will see widespread temporal broader and now commonplace recognition Haug, G. H. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 18, GB4012 (2004). imbalances in the marine nitrogen cycle.