Urea use drives niche separation between dominant marine ammonia oxidizing archaea

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are among the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean and play a critical role in marine nitrogen cycling. Recently, urea has been shown to serve as an additional substrate for marine AOA, with substantial urea use in the ammonium-depleted open-ocean. Yet, the mechanisms that control urea use and potentially maintain high AOA abundances remain unclear. Here, we investigate urea and ammonia use by AOA in three contrasting marine environments, from coastal, ammonium-rich to open-ocean, ammonium-poor waters. Our combined results indicate that distinct substrate utilization strategies of Nitrosopumilus and Nitrosopelagicus control their environmental distribution. The more coastal AOA genus, Nitrosopumilus, primarily uses ammonium. In contrast, enhanced urea utilization in ammonium-limited waters is linked to the activity and growth of Nitrosopelagicus. Thus, the use of urea, and potentially other organic-N compounds by Nitrosopelagicus plays a major role in fueling open-ocean nitrification and sustaining primary productivity in these vast regions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-12-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67048-1
Primary Topic
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Urea use drives niche separation between dominant marine ammonia oxidizing archaea

G. Lavik, Marcel M. M. Kuypers, Jana Milucka, Daan R. Speth et al.
Nature Communications
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
article

Urea use drives niche separation between dominant marine ammonia oxidizing archaea

G. Lavik, Marcel M. M. Kuypers, Jana Milucka, Daan R. Speth, Sten Littmann, Sina Schorn, Katharina Kitzinger, Aurèle Vuillemin, William D. Orsi, Hannah K. Marchant, Jon S. Graf, Siqi Wu, Jan N. von Arx, Joerdis Stuehrenberg
article en

Abstract

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are among the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean and play a critical role in marine nitrogen cycling. Recently, urea has been shown to serve as an additional substrate for marine AOA, with substantial urea use in the ammonium-depleted open-ocean. Yet, the mechanisms that control urea use and potentially maintain high AOA abundances remain unclear. Here, we investigate urea and ammonia use by AOA in three contrasting marine environments, from coastal, ammonium-rich to open-ocean, ammonium-poor waters. Our combined results indicate that distinct substrate utilization strategies of Nitrosopumilus and Nitrosopelagicus control their environmental distribution. The more coastal AOA genus, Nitrosopumilus, primarily uses ammonium. In contrast, enhanced urea utilization in ammonium-limited waters is linked to the activity and growth of Nitrosopelagicus. Thus, the use of urea, and potentially other organic-N compounds by Nitrosopelagicus plays a major role in fueling open-ocean nitrification and sustaining primary productivity in these vast regions.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
University of Vienna (AT), University of Bremen (DE), Xiamen University (CN), Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (DE), GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), University of Gothenburg (SE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 62%
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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