Dissolved inorganic nitrogen uptake by seaweeds: a global analysis

This dataset is presented as an Excel spreadsheet containing data that were collected and analysed for the project "𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀: 𝗮 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀” published in 𝘉𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 by Hurd, CL, Lush H, Gannon T and Britton (2027).

Data were collected between May 2025 and July 2025 from published studies on the uptake kinetics of nitrate (NO₃⁻) and ammonium (NH₄⁺) by marine macroalgae from the phyla Chlorophyta, Heterokontophyta and Rhodophyta. Articles were identified through searches on Google Scholar and ISI Web of Science. Each study contained data obtained from laboratory experiments on the rate of Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) uptake rate at a range of DIN concentrations. A total of 82 published studies were located, with 532 distinct data entries.

Values of the Michaelis-Menten kinetic constants maximum uptake rate (Vmax) and the half saturation constant (Ks) were extracted from studies that reported saturating uptake, and cases where the pattern of uptake with concentration was linear or biphasic were also recorded.

For each study, metadata was extracted and recorded that included: taxonomic information (phylum, order, genus and species), functional group using Steneck and Dethier (1994), the experimental subject (species and algal tissue used e.g. apical, basal), habitat of origin (subtidal, intertidal, or cultured), season of collection, and geographic coordinates of the study location (latitude and longitude).

Each of the 82 studies in this dataset includes the full reference (author and year) and a functional DOI where available (as of November 2025).