Abstract
Global-scale N-oxide contamination of groundwater within aquifers occurs due to the widespread use of N-bearing fertilizers and chemicals, threatening both human and environmental health. However, the conversion of these pollutants in active nitrogen (N) cycling processes in the subsurface biosphere still remains unclear. This study investigates the global occurrence of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in aquifers, where anammox was found to be turned on and off between saturated and unsaturated soil horizons, and contributed 36.8–79.5% to N loss in saturated soil horizons, the remainder being due to denitrification which has traditionally been considered the main pathway for removal of N-pollutants from aquifers. Although anammox activity was undetectable in the unsaturated soil horizons, it could potentially be activated by contact with ascending groundwater. High-throughput pyrosequencing analysis identified Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans as being the most abundant anammox bacterium in the saturated soils investigated. However, the anammox bacterial abundance was determined by the relative richness of Candidatus Jettenia asiatica. Isotopic pairing experiments revealed that coupling anammox with ammonium oxidation and respiratory ammonification enabled the formation of a revised N cycle in aquifer systems, in which respiratory ammonification acted as an important coordinator. Anammox can therefore contribute substantially to aquifer N cycling and its role in remediation of aquifers contaminated with N-oxides may be of global importance.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Mr. Dachun Zhu for sampling the soil cores in Jilin and Antu (farmland and forest), Dr. Shuangbing Huang for providing the soil core samples in Wuqing, and Dr. Shuci Liu for his help on model analysis. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41322012, 41671471, and 91851204), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB15020303), Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01Z176), National Key R&D Program (2016YFA0602303), and a special fund from the Key Laboratory of Drinking Water Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (15Z07KLDWST and 16Z03KLDWST) as well as the Max Planck Society (MPG). GZ gratefully acknowledges the Program of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association (CAS), and the support of a Humboldt Research Fellowship (1152633). MSMJ was supported by erc ag 232937 anammox, erc ag ecomom 339880 and siam 024002002. LS acknowledges support by the German Research Foundation (Schw554/25).
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Wang, S., Zhu, G., Zhuang, L. et al. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation is a major N-sink in aquifer systems around the world. ISME J 14, 151–163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0513-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0513-x
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