The cyclic wobble of Earth on its axis controls the production of a nutrient essential to the health of the ocean, according to a new study in the journal Nature. The discovery of factors that control this nutrient, known as “fixed” nitrogen, gives researchers insight into how the ocean regulates its own life-support system, which in turn affects Earth’s climate and the size of marine fisheries. The upwelling in turn brings nitrogen-poor water to the surface where blue-green algae convert nitrogen drawn from the air into a form that is biologically usable. 
Douglas Capone, a professor and chair of biological sciences at the University of Southern California, said that the research is notable both for understanding the nitrogen cycle and for providing a method to study it. ”I have long pondered and hoped for ways to reconstruct deeper historical trends in this important nitrogen-cycle process,” Capone said. “The new study by the Sigman and Haug groups is a major breakthrough in providing a means to do this along with throwing light on the major forces of this key process over long time scales.” Read more here!… More:
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