The composition of the oceans and of its biota have influenced each other through Earth's history. Of all the biologically essential elements, nitrogen is the only one whose seawater concentration is clearly controlled biologically; this is presumably the main reason why the stoichiometry of nitrogen (defined as its mol ratio to phosphorus), but not that of the trace nutrients manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and cadmium, is the same in seawater and in the plankton. Like the major nutrients, the trace nutrients are depleted in surface seawater as a result of quasi-complete utilization by the biota. This is made possible in part by the ability of marine phytoplankton to replace one trace metal by another in various biochemical functions. This replacement also results in an equalization of the availability of most essential trace metals in surface seawater. The difference in the stoichiometric composition of the plankton and of deep seawater, which is the dominant source of new nutrients to the surface, indicates that some nutrients are likely recycled with different efficiencies in the photic zone. The difference in the composition of the ocean and its biota provides insight into the coupling of biochemistry and biogeochemistry in seawater.

中文翻译：

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海洋中浮游植物和微量元素循环的共同演化。

海洋的组成及其生物区系通过地球的历史相互影响。在所有生物学必不可少的元素中，氮是唯一可以从生物学上明确控制海水浓度的元素。这可能是海水和海水中氮的化学计量（定义为磷与磷的摩尔比）而不是微量养分锰，铁，钴，镍，铜，锌和镉的化学计量相同的主要原因。浮游生物。像主要养分一样，由于生物群准完全利用了微量养分，地表海水中的微量养分也被消耗掉了。海洋浮游植物能够以多种生化功能将一种微量金属替换为另一种微量金属，这在某种程度上使之成为可能。这种替代还可以使表层海水中最基本的痕量金属的利用率均衡。浮游生物和深海水的化学计量组成上的差异（这是表层新养分的主要来源）表明，某些养分可能在光合带以不同的效率被循环利用。海洋及其生物群组成的差异为海水中生物化学和生物地球化学的耦合提供了见识。