Iron is important for the growth of phytoplankton. In phytoplankton, iron is used for electron transfer reactions in photosynthesis in both photosystem I and photosystem II. Additionally, iron is an important component of the enzyme nitrogenase, which is used to fix nitrogen. In measurements at open ocean stations, phytoplankton are isotopically light, with the fractionation as a result of biological uptake measured between -0.25‰ and -0.13‰. Improvement in the understanding of this fractionation will enable the more precise understanding of phytoplankton photosynthetic processes.