Trichodesmium is a keystone genus of marine cyanobacteria that is estimated to supply nearly half of the ocean’s fixed nitrogen, fuelling primary productivity and the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the ocean. In our study we characterize Trichodesmium ecology across the western tropical South Pacific using gene and genome sequencing and geochemistry. We detected genes for phosphorus reduction, providing a mechanism for the noted importance of this organism in the ocean's phosphorus cycle.