1. Microbial nitrogen removal in reef-building corals: A light-sensitive process.
- Author
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Yang Q, Ling J, Zhang Y, Zhou W, Wei Z, Li J, Zhang Y, Dong J, and Qian P
- Subjects
- Animals, Oxidation-Reduction, Light, Nitrogen Cycle, Anaerobiosis, Bacteria metabolism, Ecosystem, Anthozoa metabolism, Coral Reefs, Nitrogen metabolism, Denitrification, Ammonium Compounds metabolism
- Abstract
Scleractinian corals are the main framework-building groups in tropical coral reefs. In the coral holobiont, nitrogen-cycling mediated by microbes is fundamental for sustaining the coral reef ecosystems. However, little direct evidence characterizing the activities of microbial nitrogen removal via complete denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in stony corals has been presented. In this study, multiple incubation experiments using
15 N-tracer were conducted to identify and characterize N2 production by denitrification and anammox in the stony coral Pocillopora damicornis. The rates of denitrification and anammox were recorded up to 0.765 ± 0.162 and 0.078 ± 0.009 nmol N2 cm-2 h-1 respectively. Denitrification contributed the majority (∼90%) of N2 production by microbial nitrogen removal in stony corals. The microbial nitrogen removal activities showed diel rhythms, which might correspond to photosynthetic oxygen production. The N2 production rates of anammox and denitrification increased with incubation time. To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to confirm and characterize the activities of complete denitrification and anammox in stony corals via stable isotope techniques. This study extends the understanding on nitrogen-cycling in coral reefs and how it participates in corals' resilience to environmental stressors., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)- Published
- 2024
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