Nitrogen and Oxygen Isotope Signatures of Nitrogen Compounds during Anammox in the Laboratory and a Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Isotopic fractionation factors against N and O during anammox (anaerobic ammonia oxidization by nitrite) are critical for evaluating the importance of this process in natural environments. We performed batch incubation experiments with an anammox-dominated biomass to investigate nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotopic fractionation factors during anammox and also examined apparent isotope fractionation factors during anammox in an actual wastewater treatment plant. We conducted one incubation experiment with high δO of water to investigate the effects of water δO.

Control of the Nitrogen Isotope Composition of the Fungal Biomass: Evidence of Microbial Nitrogen Use Efficiency.

Changes in N/N in the soil microbial biomass during nitrogen (N) mineralization have been hypothesized to influence N/N in soil organic matter among ecosystem sites. However, a direct experimental test of this mechanism has not yet been performed. To evaluate the potential control of microbial N mineralization on the natural N isotope composition, we cultured fungi (Aspergillus oryzae) in five types of media of varying C:N ratios of 5, 10, 30, 50, and 100 for 4 d, and tracked changes in δN in the microbial biomass, NH, and dissolved organic N (DON: glycine) over the course of the experiment.

Evaluation of N environmental risks on Andosols from an intensive dairy farming watershed using DNDC.

Manure nitrogen (N) in the livestock sector has become a key driver of environmental change. The denitrification-decomposition (DNDC) model was used to evaluate N pollution strengths on Andosols with intensive dairy manure application in Upper Naka River Watershed, Japan. The calibrated model was capable of predicting Andosol N flows because the simulated soil mineral N content, soil nitrogen oxide (N2O) fluxes, denitrification rate, and crop N uptake matched the patterns and magnitudes of the field observations from a wide range of soil textures, as well as manure management and cropping systems.

Microbial denitrification dominates nitrate losses from forest ecosystems.

Denitrification removes fixed nitrogen (N) from the biosphere, thereby restricting the availability of this key limiting nutrient for terrestrial plant productivity. This microbially driven process has been exceedingly difficult to measure, however, given the large background of nitrogen gas (N2) in the atmosphere and vexing scaling issues associated with heterogeneous soil systems. Here, we use natural abundance of N and oxygen isotopes in nitrate (NO3 (-)) to examine dentrification rates across six forest sites in southern China and central Japan, which span temperate to tropical climates, as well as various stand ages and N deposition regimes.

Nutrient limitation in three lowland tropical forests in southern China receiving high nitrogen deposition: insights from fine root responses to nutrient additions.

Elevated nitrogen (N) deposition to tropical forests may accelerate ecosystem phosphorus (P) limitation. This study examined responses of fine root biomass, nutrient concentrations, and acid phosphatase activity (APA) of bulk soil to five years of N and P additions in one old-growth and two younger lowland tropical forests in southern China. The old-growth forest had higher N capital than the two younger forests from long-term N accumulation.

Variations in nitrogen-15 natural abundance of plant and soil systems in four remote tropical rainforests, southern China.

The foliar stable N isotope ratio (δ(15)N) can provide integrated information on ecosystem N cycling. Here we present the δ(15)N of plant and soil in four remote typical tropical rainforests (one primary and three secondary) of southern China. We aimed to examine if (1) foliar δ(15)N in the study forests is negative, as observed in other tropical and subtropical sites in eastern Asia; (2) variation in δ(15)N among different species is smaller compared to that in many N-limited temperate and boreal ecosystems; and (3) the primary forest is more N rich than the younger secondary forests and therefore is more (15)N enriched.

Ammonium first: natural mosses prefer atmospheric ammonium but vary utilization of dissolved organic nitrogen depending on habitat and nitrogen deposition.

Mosses, among all types of terrestrial vegetation, are excellent scavengers of anthropogenic nitrogen (N), but their utilization of dissolved organic N (DON) and their reliance on atmospheric N remain uncharacterized in natural environments, which obscures their roles in N cycles. Natural (15) N abundance of N sources (nitrate (NO(3)(-)), ammonium (NH(4)(+)) and DON in deposition and soil) for epilithic and terricolous mosses was analyzed at sites with different N depositions at Guiyang, China. Moss NO(3)(-) assimilation was inhibited substantially by the high supply of NH(4)(+) and DON.

Pitfalls and new mechanisms in moss isotope biomonitoring of atmospheric nitrogen deposition.

Moss N isotope (δ(15)N(bulk)) has been used to monitor N deposition, but it remains questionable whether inhibition of nitrate reductase activity (NRA) by reduced dissolved N (RDN) engenders overestimation of RDN in deposition when using moss δ(15)N(bulk). We tested this question by investigation of δ(15)N(bulk) and δ(15)NO(3)(-) in mosses under the dominance of RDN in N depositions of Guiyang, SW China. The δ(15)N(bulk) of mosses on bare rock (-7.

Nitrogen and oxygen isotope effects of tissue nitrate associated with nitrate acquisition and utilisation in the moss Hypnum plumaeforme.

Mosses are effective accumulators and indicators of N deposition, but the mechanisms of moss N utilisation remain unclear. This study monitored nitrate concentrations ([NO3-]) in solutions supplied to Hypnum plumaeforme Wils. to characterise NO3- uptake from rain events.

Low δ18O values of nitrate produced from nitrification in temperate forest soils.

Analyses of δ(18)O of nitrate (NO(3)(-)) have been widely used in partitioning NO(3)(-) sources. However the δ(18)O value of NO(3)(-) produced from nitrification (microbial NO(3)(-)) is commonly estimated using the δ(18)O of environmental water and molecular oxygen in a 2:1 ratio. Here our laboratory incubation of nine temperate forest soils across a 1500 m elevation gradient demonstrates that microbial NO(3)(-) has lower δ(18)O values than the predicted using the 2:1 ratio (by 5.

Preliminary insights into δ15N and δ18O of nitrate in natural mosses: a new application of the denitrifier method.

Natural mosses have been employed as reactive and accumulative indicators of atmospheric pollutants. Using the denitrifier method, the concentration, δ(15)N and δ(18)O of moss nitrate (NO(3)(-)) were measured to elucidate the sources of NO(3)(-) trapped in natural mosses. Oven drying at 55-70 °C, not lyophilization, was recommended to dry mosses for NO(3)(-) analyses.

High abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea in acidified subtropical forest soils in southern China after long-term N deposition.

Nitrification has been believed to be performed only by autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) until the recent discovery of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). Meanwhile, it has been questioned whether AOB are significantly responsible for NH(3) oxidation in acidic forest soils. Here, we investigated nitrifying communities and their activity in highly acidified soils of three subtropical forests in southern China that had received chronic high atmospheric N deposition.

Analytical techniques for quantifying (15)N/(14)N of nitrate, nitrite, total dissolved nitrogen and ammonium in environmental samples using a gas chromatograph equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer.

The measurement of (15)N concentrations in environmental samples requires sophisticated pretreatment devices and expensive isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). This report describes the use of a gas chromatograph equipped with a quadrupole-type mass spectrometer (GC/MS) to measure (15)N concentrations of ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) in distilled water, a 2 M KCl solution and a 0.5 M K(2)SO(4) solution.

Temporal variability of iron concentrations and fractions in wetland waters in Sanjiang Plain, northeast China.

Chemical forms, reactivities and transformation of iron fractions in marshy waters were investigated with cross-flow filtration technique to study the iron environmental behavior. Iron fractions were divided into four parts: acid-labile iron (pre-acidification of unfiltered marshy water samples, > 0.7 microm), high-molecular-weight iron (0.

The natural abundance of 15N in plant and soil-available N indicates a shift of main plant N resources to NO3(-) from NH4(+) along the N leaching gradient.

To investigate which of ammonium (NH(4)(+)) or nitrate (NO(3)(-)) is used by plants at gradient sites with different nitrogen (N) availability, we measured the natural abundance of (15)N in foliage and soil extractable N. Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa Endlicher) planted broadly in Japan was selected for use in this study. We estimated the source proportion of foliar N (NH(4)(+) vs.