Search results for "NITRIFICATION"
showing 10 items of 192 documents
Direct seeding mulch-based cropping increases both the activity and the abundance of denitrifier communities in a tropical soil
2009
International audience; This study evaluated the impact of direct seeding mulch-based cropping (DMC), as an alternative to conventional tilling (CT), on a functional community involved in N cycling and emission of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). The study was carried out for annual soybean/rice crop rotation in the Highlands of Madagascar. The differences between the two soil management strategies (direct seeding with mulched crop residues versus tillage without incorporation of crop residues) were studied along a fertilization gradient (no fertilizer, organic fertilizer, organic plus mineral fertilizers). The activity and size of the denitrifier community were determined by denitrifica…
Relationship between N-cycling communities and ecosystem functioning in a 50-year-old fertilization experiment.
2009
The relative importance of size and composition of microbial communities in ecosystem functioning is poorly understood. Here, we investigated how community composition and size of selected functional guilds in the nitrogen cycle correlated with agroecosystem functioning, which was defined as microbial process rates, total crop yield and nitrogen content in the crop. Soil was sampled from a 50-year fertilizer trial and the treatments comprised unfertilized bare fallow, unfertilized with crop, and plots with crop fertilized with calcium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, solid cattle manure or sewage sludge. The size of the functional guilds and the total bacterial community were greatly affected by …
Stable isotope profiles of nitrogen gas indicate denitrification in oxygen-stratified humic lakes
2011
Mid-summer N(2) profiles were analyzed from nine oxygen-stratified, humic-acid-rich lakes using a continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer and a Gasbench II device. Sample preparation steps were performed under water to avoid air contamination. The instrument precision for the δ(15)N measurement was high (0.03‰), but for the whole sampling and analysis procedure the mean deviation between replicate samples was 0.13‰ for the δ(15)N measurements and 5.5% for the N(2) gas concentration analysis. The results show that the Gasbench peripheral was suitable for measurement of the (15)N natural abundance of dissolved nitrogen gas, with denitrification indicated by the oversaturation and slig…
Subsurface nitrate reduction under wetlands takes place in narrow superficial zones
2017
This study aims to investigate the depth distribution of the Nitrate Reduction Potential (NRP) on a natural and a re-established wetland. The obtained NRP provides a valuable data of the driving factors affecting denitrification, the Dissimilatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium (DNRA) process and the performance of a re-established wetland. Intact soil cores were collected and divided in slices for the determination of Organic Matter (OM) through Loss of Ignition (LOI) as well as Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) and NRP spiking nitrate in batch tests. The Nitrate Reduction (NR) was fitted as a pseudo-first order rate constant (k) from where NRPs were obtained. NR took place in a narrow superfi…
High Nitrogen Removal in a Constructed Wetland Receiving Treated Wastewater in a Cold Climate
2018
Constructed wetlands provide cost-efficient nutrient removal, with minimal input of human labor and energy, and their number is globally increasing. However, in northern latitudes, wetlands are rarely utilized, because their nutrient removal efficiency has been questioned due to the cold climate. Here, we studied nutrient retention and nitrogen removal in a boreal constructed wetland (4-ha) receiving treated nitrogen-rich wastewater. On a yearly basis, most of the inorganic nutrients were retained by the wetland. The highest retention efficiency was found during the ice-free period, being 79% for ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+-N), 71% for nitrate-nitrogen (NO3--N), and 88% for phosphate-phosphorus…
Influence of15N enrichment on the net isotopic fractionation factor during the reduction of nitrate to nitrous oxide in soil
2007
5 pages; International audience; Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, is mainly emitted from soils during the denitrification process. Nitrogen stable-isotope investigations can help to characterise the N(2)O source and N(2)O production mechanisms. The stable-isotope approach is increasingly used with (15)N natural abundance or relatively low (15)N enrichment levels and requires a good knowledge of the isotopic fractionation effect inherent to this biological mechanism. This paper reports the measurement of the net and instantaneous isotopic fractionation factor (alpha(s/p) (i)) during the denitrification of NO(3) (-) to N(2)O over a range of (15)N substrate enrichments (0.37 to 1.00 atom% (15)…
N2O emission in maize-crops fertilized with pig slurry, matured pig manure or ammonium nitrate in Brittany
2008
International audience; N2O is a potent greenhouse gas and solutions have to be sought to reduce its emission from agriculture. This work evaluates N2O emission from maize-crop (Zea mays) fields submitted to different organic or mineral fertilizers (pig slurry, matured pig manure or ammonium nitrate) in Brittany (France). N2O emission was evaluated along a year in two experimental sites receiving 110 or 180 kg N ha−1 as ammonium nitrate or pig slurry and 180 or 132 kg N ha−1 as ammonium nitrate or matured pig manure at Champ Noel and Le Rheu experimental plots, respectively. N2O emission was evaluated by interpolation method of periodic fluxes on the field scale and by simulation with NOE a…
Optimization of Nitrification Process by a Bacterial Consortium in the Submerged Biofiltration System with Ceramic Bead Carrier
2014
Laboratory-scale solid phase submerged system was developed to study the process of ammonium biodegradation. Ceramic beads were found to be an appropriate carrier material for the attachment of thePNN bacterial consortium (Pseudomonas sp., Nitrosomonas sp., Nitrobacter sp.) exhibiting nitrification/denitrification activity. This consortium was previously isolated from a biological activated sludge process at a fish factory wastewater treatment plant. Three organic amendments - molasses, humic acid extract, and malt extract - were used for the ceramic bead pretreatment. Molasses significantly enhanced (p<0.05) the process of bacteria attachment onto the ceramic carrier and further ammonium r…
Nitrous oxide emission in a University of Cape Town membrane bioreactor: The effect of carbon to nitrogen ratio
2017
Abstract The effect of the carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio in the influent on the nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission from a University of Cape Town Membrane BioReactor pilot plant was investigated. The membrane was located in a separate tank to single out the production of N 2 O due to the biological processes from N 2 O stripping as a result of the extra aeration needed for the mitigation of membrane fouling. The experimental campaign was divided into two phases, each characterized by a different C/N ratio (namely, 10 and 5 mgCOD/mgTN, Phase I and Phase II, respectively). The decrease of the C/N ratio promoted the increase of N 2 O emissions in both gaseous and dissolved phases, mainly due to a…
An advanced control strategy for biological nutrient removal in continuous systems based on pH and ORP sensors
2012
[EN] A fuzzy logic-based control system that uses low-cost sensors for controlling and optimizing the biological nitrogen removal in continuous systems has been developed. The novelty of this control system is the use of several pH, ORP, and dissolved oxygen (DO) sensors instead of on-line nitrogen sensors/analyzers. The nitrogen control system was developed and implemented in a UCT pilot plant fed with wastewater from a full-scale plant. The developed nitrification controller allows the effluent ammonium concentration to be maintained below the effluent criteria discharge with the minimum energy consumption. The denitrification process controller allows the energy consumption derived from …