Denitrifying community in coastal sediments performs aerobic and anaerobic respiration simultaneously.

ABSTRACT: Nitrogen (N) input to the coastal oceans has increased considerably because of anthropogenic activities, however, concurrent increases have not occurred in open oceans. It has been suggested that benthic denitrification in sandy coastal sediments is a sink for this N. Sandy sediments are dynamic permeable environments, where electron acceptor and donor concentrations fluctuate over short temporal and spatial scales. The response of denitrifiers to these fluctuations are largely unknown, although previous observations suggest they may denitrify under aerobic conditions. We examined the response of benthic denitrification to fluctuating oxygen concentrations, finding that denitrification not only occurred at high O₂ concentrations but was stimulated by frequent switches between ox

SUBMITTER: Marchant HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5520038 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature