Nitrification in terrestrial hot springs of Iceland and Kamchatka

Autor(en)
Laila Johanne Reigstad, Andreas Richter, Holger Daims, Tim Urich, Lorenz Schwark, Christa Schleper
Abstrakt

Archaea have been detected recently as a major and often dominant component of the microbial communities performing ammonia oxidation in terrestrial and marine environments. In a molecular survey of archaeal ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) genes in terrestrial hot springs of Iceland and Kamchatka, the amoA gene encoding the α-subunit of AMO was detected in a total of 14 hot springs out of the 22 investigated. Most of these amoA-positive hot springs had temperatures between 82 and 97 °C and pH range between 2.5 and 7. In phylogenetic analyses, these amoA genes formed three independent lineages within the known sequence clusters of marine or soil origin. Furthermore, in situ gross nitrification rates in Icelandic hot springs were estimated by the pool dilution technique directly on site. At temperatures above 80 °C, between 56 and 159 μmol NO3− L−1 mud per day was produced. Furthermore, addition of ammonium to the hot spring samples before incubation yielded a more than twofold higher potential nitrification rate, indicating that the process was limited by ammonia supply. Our data provide evidence for an active role of archaea in nitrification of hot springs in a wide range of pH values and at a high temperature.

Organisation(en)
Externe Organisation(en)
University of Bergen (UiB), Universität zu Köln
Journal
FEMS microbiology ecology
Band
64
Seiten
167-174
Anzahl der Seiten
8
ISSN
0168-6496
Publikationsdatum
2008
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
106022 Mikrobiologie
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 14 – Leben unter Wasser
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/nitrification-in-terrestrial-hot-springs-of-iceland-and-kamchatka(225d1801-1b9e-4489-ad09-c9c6861ac7ce).html