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Influence of oxygen availability on the activities of ammonia‐oxidizing archaea
Author(s) -
Qin Wei,
Meinhardt Kelley A.,
Moffett James W.,
Devol Allan H.,
Virginia Armbrust E.,
Ingalls Anitra E.,
Stahl David A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
environmental microbiology reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.229
H-Index - 69
ISSN - 1758-2229
DOI - 10.1111/1758-2229.12525
Subject(s) - archaea , oxidizing agent , ammonia , oxygen , environmental chemistry , biology , environmental science , chemistry , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
Summary Recent studies point to the importance of oxygen (O 2 ) in controlling the distribution and activity of marine ammonia‐oxidizing archaea (AOA), one of the most abundant prokaryotes in the ocean. The AOA are associated with regions of low O 2 tension in oceanic oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), and O 2 availability is suggested to influence their production of the ozone‐depleting greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N 2 O). We show that marine AOA available in pure culture sustain high ammonia oxidation activity at low μM O 2 concentrations, characteristic of suboxic regions of OMZs (<10 µM O 2 ), and that atmospheric concentrations of O 2 may inhibit the growth of some environmental populations. We quantify the increasing N 2 O production by marine AOA with decreasing O 2 tensions, consistent with the plausibility of an AOA contribution to the accumulation of N 2 O at the oxic‐anoxic redox boundaries of OMZs. Variable sensitivity to peroxide also suggests that endogenous or exogenous reactive oxygen species are of importance in determining the environmental distribution of some populations.