The effect of nitrate concentration on sulfide-driven autotrophic denitrification in marine sediment

Ming Fei Shao, Tong Zhang, Herbert Han Ping Fang, Xiangdong Li

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

63 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The effect of nitrate concentration on denitrification rate, microbial community and byproduct accumulation in sulfide-driven autotrophic denitrification, one of the dominant processes during anoxic marine sediment remediation, was investigated in this study. Microorganisms which were phylogenetically closely related with Sulfurimonas denitrificans of ε-Proteobacteria and Thiohalomonas denitrificans of γ-Proteobacteria were the major autotrophic denitrifiers in this study. Nitrate concentration was demonstrated to have selective effect on denitrifying microbial community as revealed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Denitrifiers enriched at 30mM NO3- have higher diversity than other two groups (10, and 80mM NO3-) according to Shannon index. Denitrification showed zero-order reaction kinetics when nitrate concentration was higher than 4mM. Neither absolute nitrate concentration nor overall nitrate/sulfide ratio acted as the determinant for denitrification byproduct (i.e. N2O and NO2-) accumulation. The limitation of sulfide due to low mass transfer might be the reason for the byproduct accumulation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-6
Number of pages6
JournalChemosphere
Volume83
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2011

Keywords

  • Autotrophic denitrification
  • Nitrate concentration
  • Sediment
  • Sulfurimonas denitrificans

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • General Chemistry

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