Recent geochemical, biological, and oceanographic work have together provided strong evidence that the marine nitrogen cycle is highly dynamic and that significant uncertainties remain in our knowledge of the important processes and fluxes that affect nitrogen in the ocean. New experimental methods and the extension of field studies to previously undersampled regions have demonstrated that the major fluxes of nitrogen into and out of the ocean are sufficiently large to turn over oceanic nitrogen on a time scale of several millennia. At this time, a broad synthesis of our current understanding of the marine nitrogen cycle is very timely and a critical step in focusing future research efforts into the nitrogen cycle and its interactions with other biogeochemical cycles (e.g., the carbon cycle).
With this award to the Georgia Institute of Technology, travel funds will be provided to support the attendance of approximately seventeen U.S. scientists at an international workshop to assess and report on our current understanding of the marine nitrogen cycle that has been organized for 26 June to 1 July 2005 in Warnemunde, Germany. Core funding for the workshop has been obtained from the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), but these funds will not cover the travel costs of US participants. This NSF award provides funds to cover basic airfare for the invited speakers from US institutions and to provide several travel grants targeted at graduate students and scientists at an early stage of their career.
Broader Impacts: Funding through this award will provide travel support to US scientists who wish to take part in the SPOT-ON workshop in Warnemunde. NSF support is essential to ensuring that a diverse group of US scientists of various career stages will be able to take part in this workshop.
