In:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, No. 47 ( 2013-11-19), p. 18994-18999
Abstract:
Nitrogen (N) isotope ratios ( 15 N/ 14 N) provide integrative constraints on the N inventory of the modern ocean. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), which converts ammonium and nitrite to dinitrogen gas (N 2 ) and nitrate, is an important fixed N sink in marine ecosystems. We studied the so far unknown N isotope effects of anammox in batch culture experiments. Anammox preferentially removes 14 N from the ammonium pool with an isotope effect of +23.5‰ to +29.1‰, depending on factors controlling reversibility. The N isotope effects during the conversion of nitrite to N 2 and nitrate are ( i ) inverse kinetic N isotope fractionation associated with the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate (−31.1 ± 3.9‰), ( ii ) normal kinetic N isotope fractionation during the reduction of nitrite to N 2 (+16.0 ± 4.5‰), and ( iii ) an equilibrium N isotope effect between nitrate and nitrite (−60.5 ± 1.0‰), induced when anammox is exposed to environmental stress, leading to the superposition of N isotope exchange effects upon kinetic N isotope fractionation. Our findings indicate that anammox may be responsible for the unresolved large N isotope offsets between nitrate and nitrite in oceanic oxygen minimum zones. Irrespective of the extent of N isotope exchange between nitrate and nitrite, N removed from the combined nitrite and nitrate (NO x ) pool is depleted in 15 N relative to NO x . This net N isotope effect by anammox is superimposed on the N isotope fractionation by the co-occurring reduction of nitrate to nitrite in suboxic waters, possibly enhancing the overall N isotope effect for N loss from oxygen minimum zones.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0027-8424
,
1091-6490
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1310488110
Language:
English
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publication Date:
2013
detail.hit.zdb_id:
209104-5
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461794-8
SSG:
11
SSG:
12
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