Survey of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium microbial community at national wetland of Shanghai, China

Abstract

Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (DNRA) process is an important nitrate reduction pathway in the environment. Numerous studies focused on the DNRA, especially in various natural habitats. However, little is known about the envrionmental parameters driving the DNRA process in anthropogenic ecosystem. Human activities put forward significant influence on nitrogen cycle and bacterial communities of sediment. This study aimed to assess the DNRA potential rates, nrfA gene abundance, DNRA bacterial community’s diversity and influencing factors in a national wetland park near the Yangtze River estuary, Shanghai. The results of 15N isotope tracer experiments showed that DNRA potential rates from 0.13 to 0.44 μmol N/kg/h and contribution of nitrate reduction varied from 1.56% to 7.47%. The quantitative real-time PCR results showed that DNRA functional gene nrfA abundances ranged from 9.87E+10 to 1.98E+11 copies/g dry weight. The results of nrfA gene pyrosequencing analysis showed that Lacunisphaera (10.4–13.4%), Sorangium (7.1–10.7%), Aeromonas (4.2–6.8%), Corallococcus (1.8–6.9%), and Geobacter (3.3–6.6%) showed higher relative abundances in their genus levels. Combined with environmental parameters of sediments, redundancy analysis indicated that the nrfA functional gene was positively correlated with moisture content, the concentration of NO2−-N and NO3−N; the DNRA rates was positively correlated with sediment organic carbon (SOC), C/NO3− ratio and salinity (ranked by explains %). This study is the first simultaneous determination of nitrate reduction pathways including denitrification, anammox and DNRA rates to assess the role of DNRA in a national wetland park and revealed the community abundance, diversity of DNRA bacteria and its relationship with environmental factors.