Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:57:43.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brant, T. Von, Rakestraw, N. W. & Renn, C. E., 1937. The experimental decomposition and regeneration of nitrogenous organic matter in sea water. Biol. Bull., Woods Hole, Vol. 72, pp. 165–75.Google Scholar
Carey, C. L., 1938. The occurrence and distribution of nitrifying bacteria in the sea. J. mar. Res., Vol. 1, pp. 291–304.Google Scholar
Cooper, L. H. N., 1935. Iron in the sea and in marine plankton. Proc. Roy. Soc. B, Vol. 118, pp. 419–38.Google Scholar
Cooper, L. H. N., 1948. Paniculate ammonia in sea water. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 27, pp. 322–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, H. W., 1926. Nitrate in the sea. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K., Vol. 14, pp. 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lees, H. & Quastel, J. H., 1946. Biochemistry of nitrification in soil. The site of soil nitrification. Biochem. J., Vol. 40, pp. 815–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meiklejohn, J., 1953. Iron and the nitrifying bacteria. J. gen. Microbiol., Vol. 8, pp. 58–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quastel, J. H., Scholefield, P. G. & Stevenson, J. W., 1952. Oxidation of pyruvic acid oxime by soil organisms. Biochem. J., Vol. 51, pp. 278–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rider, B. F. & Mellon, M. G., 1946. Colorimetric determination of nitrites. Industr. Engng Chem., Vol. 18, pp. 96–9.Google Scholar
Waksman, S. A., Hotchkiss, M. & Carey, C. L., 1933. Marine bacteria and their role in the cycle of life in the sea. II. Bacteria concerned in the cycle of nitrogen in the sea. Biol. Bull, Woods Hole, Vol. 65, pp. 137–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zobell, C. E., 1933. Photochemical nitrification in sea water. Science, Vol. 77, pp. 27–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zobell, C. E., 1946. Marine microbiology. 240 pp. Waltham, Mass.: Chron. bot. Co.Google Scholar