Collected reprints: Abstract 3169
Collected reprints
Abstract
Goeyens, L.; De Vries, R.T.P.; Bakker, J.F.; Helder, W. (1987). An experiment on the relative importance of denitrification, nitrate reduction and ammonification in coastal marine sediment. Neth. J. of Sea Res. 21(3): 171-175
Simultaneous determinations of 15N-nitrogen gas production, 15N-ammonia formation by nitrate reduction and ammonia production from organic nitrogen were carried out after addition of 15N-nitrate to anaerobically incubated sediment slurries from a location in the Dutch Wadden Sea. The rate of nitrogen gas production was 1.75 µmol N.cm-3 wet sediment.d-1, nitrate reduction to ammonia occurred to a rate of 0.79 µmol N.cm -3.d -1 and ammonification at 1.17 µmol N-cm -3.d -1. At the end of the incubation experiment (after 30 h) 63% of the originally added 15N-nitrate was present as nitrogen gas, 32% ended up as ammonia and ~ 4% as particulate organic nitrogen. Ammonia production by degradation of organic nitrogen compounds was the most important process in building up the ammonia pool in the anaerobic sediment incubation.
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