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Denitrification and Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidization Across the Sediment–Water Interface in the Hypereutrophic Ecosystem, Jinpu Bay, in the Northeastern Coast of China

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Abstract

Denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidization (anammox) are considered the most important processes of removing reactive nitrogen from natural aquatic environments. We measured and compared in situ rates of the two processes across the sediment–water interface of Jinpu Bay using continuous-flow experiments combined with a 15NO3 − tracing technique to determine their relative importance in this hypereutrophic coastal ecosystem. Rates of denitrification and anammox ranged from 1.76 to 327.97 and 0.33 to 36.32 μmol N m−2 day−1, respectively. Both the denitrification and anammox processes were observed to be associated closely with the bioavailability of organic matter and concentrations of sulfide and iron oxides in sediments. Denitrification was the dominant pathway of eliminating reactive nitrogen and on average accounted for about 90 % of the total removed nitrogen. Totally, both the denitrification and anammox processes removed about 20 % of the externally derived inorganic nitrogen within the system. Most of the external nitrogen was still retained in the ecosystem, which may cause the severe eutrophication and algae blooms occurring at the study area.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 41130525, 41322002, 41106074, 41071135, and 41271114) and the State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research (No. 2010RCDW07). It was also supported by the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET) and the Marine Scientific Research Project for Public Interest (No. 200905007). We thank Wayne S. Gardner and three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, People’s Republic of China

    Guoyu Yin, Lijun Hou, Haibo Zong, Pingxing Ding, Xunliang Cheng & Junliang Zhou

  2. Department of Geography, Key Laboratory of Geographical information Science of the Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, People’s Republic of China

    Min Liu

  3. Center of National Marine Environmental Monitoring, Dalian, 116023, People’s Republic of China

    Shufang Zhang

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  1. Guoyu Yin
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Yin, G., Hou, L., Zong, H. et al. Denitrification and Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidization Across the Sediment–Water Interface in the Hypereutrophic Ecosystem, Jinpu Bay, in the Northeastern Coast of China. Estuaries and Coasts 38, 211–219 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9798-1

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