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The bacterial oxidation of ammonia in the sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

C. P. Spencer
C. P. Spencer
Affiliation:
Marine Biology Station, University College of North Wales, and The Plymouth Laboratory
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Extract

The final regeneration stages of the nitrogen cycle in the sea are believed to consist of the bacterial oxidation of ammonium-nitrogen to nitrite and finally nitrate-nitrogen. There have been many attempts to demonstrate the presence in the sea of marine counterparts to the terrestrial Nitrosomonas and Nttrobacter. (See Zobell, 1946, for bibliography of the earlier work.) Bacteria which can oxidize either ammonia or nitrite are easily demonstrated in samples of bottom material or water contaminated by land drainage or bottom deposits. On the other hand, there has been general failure to demonstrate the presence of such species in the upper layers of the open ocean.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , October 1956 , pp. 621 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1956

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References

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