Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kuypers MM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC556276 | biostudies-literature | 2005 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20050420 18
In many oceanic regions, growth of phytoplankton is nitrogen-limited because fixation of N2 cannot make up for the removal of fixed inorganic nitrogen (NH4+, NO2-, and NO3-) by anaerobic microbial processes. Globally, 30-50% of the total nitrogen loss occurs in oxygen-minimum zones (OMZs) and is commonly attributed to denitrification (reduction of nitrate to N2 by heterotrophic bacteria). Here, we show that instead, the anammox process (the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium by nitrite to yield N2) ...[more]