In contrast to most fresh-water sources, iron levels in surface sea-water are extremely low (1 nM to 1 μM in the upper 200 m) and much lower than those of V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn. Virtually all this iron is in the iron(III) state and complexed to organic ligands. These low levels of iron limit the primary production of phytoplankton and have led to the Iron Hypothesis where it was proposed that an influx of iron would promote phytoplankton growth and thereby reduce atmospheric CO. This hypothesis has been tested on more than 10 different occasions and in all cases, massive blooms resulted. However, the blooms persisted for variable periods of time. An interesting observation made in some of these studies was that the concentration of the organic ligands increased over a short time span in order to match the concentration of added iron, thus implying biological origin and in view of their affinity for iron possibly being of a siderophore or siderophore-like nature. Significantly, heterotrophic bacteria were also found to markedly increase in number in the iron-induced blooms. Thus there is the element of synergism between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria. Phytoplankton require iron (provided by bacterial siderophores), and heterotrophic bacteria require non-CO carbon sources (provided by phytoplankton).
The dilute nature of the pelagic marine environment promotes large diffusive losses and renders the efficiency of the normal siderophore-based iron uptake strategies problematic. However, many heterotrophic marine bacteria do produce siderophores, albeit with properties different from those produced by terrestrial organisms. Many marine siderophores are surface-active and tend to form molecular aggregates, for example aquachelins. The presence of the fatty acyl chain renders the molecules with a high surface activity and an ability to form micelles. Thus, when secreted, these molecules bind to surfaces and to each other, thereby slowing the rate of diffusion away from the secreting organism and maintaining a relatively high local siderophore concentration. Phytoplankton have high iron requirements and yet the majority (and possibly all) do not produce siderophores. Phytoplankton can, however, obtain iron from siderophore complexes by the aid of membrane-bound reductases and certainly from iron(II) generated via photochemical decomposition of iron(III) siderophores. Thus a large proportion of iron (possibly all iron) absorbed by phytoplankton is dependent on bacterial siderophore production.