High rates of denitrification and nitrous oxide emission in arid biological soil crusts from the Sultanate of Oman.

ABSTRACT: Using a combination of process rate determination, microsensor profiling and molecular techniques, we demonstrated that denitrification, and not anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), is the major nitrogen loss process in biological soil crusts from Oman. Potential denitrification rates were 584±101 and 58±20 μmol N m(-2) h(-1) for cyanobacterial and lichen crust, respectively. Complete denitrification to N2 was further confirmed by an (15)NO3(-) tracer experiment with intact crust pieces that proceeded at rates of 103±19 and 27±8 μmol N m(-2) h(-1) for cyanobacterial and lichen crust, respectively. Strikingly, N2O gas was emitted at very high potential rates of 387±143 and 31±6 μmol N m(-2) h(-1) from the cyanobacterial and lichen crust, respectively, with N2O accounting for 53-66% of th

SUBMITTER: Abed RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3749496 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature