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The Atacama Desert is characterized by a fog zone occurring between 500 and 800 m elevation. We hypothesized that atmospheric deposition from marine sources was the primary source of nitrogen for plants in the fog zone, and so the delta N-15 of plants should differ between those above and below that zone. No significant differences in leaf delta N-15 values were detected among the three locations. The delta N-15 values for non-nitrogen fixing species (6-12 parts per thousand) were substantially more positive than that of atmospheric deposition (-1 parts per thousand) suggesting immediate assimilation of nitrogen from fog was not an important source of plant nitrogen.