Collected reprints: Abstract 3539

Collected reprints

Abstract

Podamo, J. (1975). Ecometabolism of a shallow marine lagoon at Ostend (Belgium) : 4. The role of microbial activity in sediments in the carbon and nitrogen cycles. 10th Europ. Symp. Mar. Biol. 2: 531-548

Nitrogen nutrients being, at least at some periods of the year, a limiting factor of primary production in the Sluice-Dock at Ostend, the production or consumption of ammonium and nitrate by the benthic bacterial communities plays an important role in the dynamics of the ecosystem. A methodology is developed to evaluate the fluxes of carbon and nitrogen associated with the microbiological activity and the physical mass transfer in the sediments. It is based on the analysis of vertical concentration profiles of pertinent substances in the sediment, completed with some direct in situ measurements of microbiological activity. This methodology is applied to denitrification, total heterotrophic activity, and nutrification in the two types of sediment found in the Sluice-Dock of Ostend. The data obtained are used to draw up a budget of nitrogen transformations in the sediments of this ecosystem.


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