Denitrification in tiny anoxic pockets on sand grains could account for up to one-third of total nitrogen loss in silicate shelf sands.
Denitrification in tiny anoxic pockets on sand grains could account for up to one-third of total nitrogen loss in silicate shelf sands.
Some microbes living on sand grains use up all the oxygen around them. Their neighbors, left without oxygen, make the best of it: They use nitrate in the surrounding water for denitrification – a process hardly possible when oxygen is present. This denitrification in sandy sediments in well-oxygenated waters can substantially contribute to nitrogen loss in the oceans.
Human activities, such as agriculture, have dramatically increased nitrogen inputs into coastal seas.
Microorganisms remove much of this human-derived nitrogen in coastal sands through a process called denitrification.
Read more at Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Image: Permeable sands cover more than half of the continental shelf seafloor, where they function as huge filters, removing vast amounts of anthropogenically derived nitrogen that reaches the ocean via rivers and groundwater. (Credit: Fanni Aspetsberger)
