Staying alive: sinking Trichodesmium fixes nitrogen in the dark ocean
Sunlight extinguishes about 150 m in the ocean, retaining photosynthetic microbes such as the diazotrophic cyanobacteria in the surface ocean layer. Here we find that Trichodesmium, a key photosynthetic diazotroph, fixes nitrogen while sinking into the deep ocean down to 1000 m depth.