Abstract
AT the surface of sulphide-rich marine and freshwater sediments, the gliding filamentous sulphur bacteria Beggiatoa spp. often grow abundantly to form conspicuous white mats1–6. Beggiatoa may be responsible for the whole benthic consumption of oxygen, converting sulphide to either intracellular elemental sulphur, or to extracellular sulphate7–9. Various strains of Beggiatoa have shown a capacity for nitrogen fixation and assimilation of ammonium and nitrate10. We now report that denitrification activity may also be attributed to Beggiatoa spp., which indicates that Beggiatoa mats could have a key role in the benthic cycling of oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen. Microprofiles of nitrate through a Beggiatoa mat on a lake sediment showed that all nitrate taken up from the water phase was consumed within the upper 150 μ m of the mat. Complete denitrification was demonstrated by the conversion of 15NO−3 to 15N2 in semi-purified tufts of Beggiatoa, and the coupling of denitrification and sulphide oxidation was indicated by micro-profiles of oxygen and sulphide in pure cultures.
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Sweerts, JP., Beer, D., Nielsen, L. et al. Denitrification by sulphur oxidizing Beggiatoa spp. mats on freshwater sediments. Nature 344, 762–763 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/344762a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/344762a0
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