Denitrification in sediment determined from nitrogen isotope pairing

doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.1992.tb04828.x

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Wiley InterScience

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Volume 86 Issue 4, Pages 357 - 362

Published Online: 27 Mar 2006

Published on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies

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Denitrification in sediment determined from nitrogen isotope pairing

Lars Peter Nielsen ¹

¹ Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

Correspondence to: L.P. Nielsen, Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

KEYWORDS

Denitrification • Nitrification • Sediment • Isotopes • ¹⁵N • ¹⁵NO₃⁻

ABSTRACT

Abstract A new method for accurate and easy measurement of denitrification in sediments is presented. The water overlying intact sediment cores was enriched with ¹⁵NO₃⁻ which mixed with the ¹⁴NO₃⁻ of the natural sources of NO₃⁻. The formation by denitrification of single-labeled (¹⁴N¹⁵N) and double-labeled (¹⁵N¹⁵N) dinitrogen pairs was measured by mass spectrometry after a few hours incubation. Total denitrification including the formation of unlabeled (¹⁴N¹⁴N) dinitrogen could be calculated assuming random isotope pairing by denitrification of the uniformly mixed NO₃⁻ species. In contrast to previous approaches, by this method it is possible to measure denitrification of both NO₃⁻ diffusing from the overlying water and NO₃⁻ from nitrification within the sediment.