News Finding: We found the opposite: Rates are actually higher in coastal areas.
Paper Finding: In that case, any biases in the quantitative measurement due to amplification biases or DNA extraction recoveries should be consistent across the samples.
News Context: Knowing where and when nitrogen fixation is occurring will help scientists better quantify coastal waters' ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide and aid in future climate predictions. We found the opposite: Rates are actually higher in coastal areas. Most of this overlooked activity is being driven by microbes known as cyanobacterial diazotrophs that live in coastal waters, the study shows.
Paper Context: However, while recovery of the standard may differ from recovery of natural taxa in the same sample, variation in standard recovery efficiency from sample to sample will reflect differences in starting material, losses during elution, and other processes as long as the same PCR and library preparation protocol is followed. In that case, any biases in the quantitative measurement due to amplification biases or DNA extraction recoveries should be consistent across the samples. Therefore, the 16S rRNA approach is informative when providing the spatial distribution and abundance patterns of diazotrophic taxa.