THE OCCURRENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF NITRITE IN THE SEA

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Abstract
The data presented include, principally, analyses of water samples from various depths at a large number of stations from the Gulf of Maine to the Caribbean Sea. In many cases comparisons were made between nitrite, nitrate and phosphate concentrations. Evidence is presented to show that production and utilization of nitrite take place in particular, but different, layers. This gives rise to large vertical differences, and usually in summer a maximum zone, of variable depth, sharpness and intensity. The nitrite concentration, as well as nitrate and phosphate, were followed for more than a year at a considerable number of stations in the Gulf of Maine. In a few instances comparisons were made with the ammonia content. The author favors oxidation of ammonia, rather than reduction of nitrate, as the principal source of nitrite. The significance of nitrite in the whole nitrogen cycle in the sea ia discussed and the general theory proposed that nitrite is an early stage in the decomposition and oxidation of organic matter, presumably after the liberation of ammonia. This goes on slowly during the winter, and more rapidly as the season progresses. When diatoms begin to grow they utilize nitrite, along with nitrate. Organic matter works downward, by settling or by diffusion and mixing, while it is decomposing and oxidizing. Nitrite was found to diminish in the majority of nearly 300 samples followed during various times of storage. Evidence was found of a reversible photochemical change of nitrate into nitrite. Nitrite was determined in a number of samples of bottom mud, and it is shown that the process of nitrification goes on much more rapidly on shallow bottoms than on that of the deep open ocean.

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