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Nitrate was formed from ammonium at pH 3.2 to 6.1 in suspensions of a naturally acid forest soil; the maximum rates of formation occurred at ca. pH 4 to 5. Nitrate was also formed from soil nitrogen in suspensions incubated at 50 degrees C. Autotrophic nitrifying bacteria could not be isolated from this soil. Enrichment cultures produced nitrate in a medium with beta-alanine if much soil was added to the medium, and nitrite but not nitrate was formed in the presence of small amounts of soil. Nitrification by these enrichments was abolished by eucaryotic but not procaryotic inhibitors. A strain of Absidia cylindrospora isolated from this soil was found to produce nitrate and nitrite in a medium with beta-alanine at pH values ranging from 4.0 to 4.8. Nitrate production by A. cylindrospora required the presence of sterile soil. Free and bound hydroxylamine, hydroxamic acids, and primary aliphatic nitro compounds did not accumulate during the conversion of beta-alanine to nitrite by the fungus. The organism also formed nitrite from ammonium in a medium containing acetate. We suggest that nitrification in this soil is a heterotrophic process catalyzed by acid-tolerant fungi and not by autotrophs or heterotrophs in nonacid microsites.

The populations of six bacterial genera fell rapidly after their addition to sterile lake water but not after their addition to buffer. The decline in numbers of two species that were studied further, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Micrococcus flavus, occurred even when the buffer was added to sterile lake water. The inhibition of K. pneumoniae by substances in lake water varied with the season of the year, and the rate and extent of decline of both species were different in sterile samples of different lakes. The extent of reduction in the density of K. pneumoniae was independent of initial population size and was diminished by the addition of 10 mug of glucose per ml of lake water. The toxin was removed from lake water by dialysis and by a cation-exchange resin but not by an anion-exchange resin, and it was destroyed by heating. The inhibition of K. pneumoniae was not evident in lake water buffered at a pH value above 8.0. We suggest that toxins may be important in determining the composition of the bacterial community of lakes.