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Abstract. Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), due to their large volumes of perennially deoxygenated waters, are critical regions for understanding how the interplay between anaerobic and aerobic nitrogen (N) cycling microbial pathways affects the marine N budget. Here, we present a suite of measurements of the most significant OMZ N cycling rates, which all involve nitrite (NO2-) as a product, reactant, or intermediate, in the eastern tropical North Pacific (ETNP) OMZ. These measurements and comparisons to data from previously published OMZ cruisespresent additional evidence that NO3- reduction is the predominant OMZ N flux, followed by NO2- oxidation back to NO3-. The combined rates of both of these N recycling processes were observed to be much greater (up to nearly 200 times) thanthe combined rates of the N loss processes of anammox and denitrification, especially in waters near the anoxic–oxic interface. We also showthat NO2- oxidation can occur when O2 is maintained near 1 nM by a continuous-purge system, NO2-oxidation and O2 measurements that further strengthen the case for truly anaerobic NO2- oxidation. We also evaluate thepossibility that NO2- dismutation provides the oxidative power for anaerobic NO2- oxidation. The partitioning ofN loss between anammox and denitrification differed widely from stoichiometric predictions of at most 29 % anammox; in fact,N loss rates at many depths were entirely due to anammox. Our new NO3- reduction, NO2- oxidation, dismutation, andN loss data shed light on many open questions in OMZ N cycling research, especially the possibility of truly anaerobicNO2- oxidation.