Abstract
Ambient nitrous oxide (N 2O) emissions from Great Boiling Spring (GBS) in the US Great Basin depended on temperature, with the highest flux, 67.8±2.6μmol N 2O-Nm -2day -1, occurring in the large source pool at 82°C. This rate of N 2O production contrasted with negligible production from nearby soils and was similar to rates from soils and sediments impacted with agricultural fertilizers. To investigate the source of N 2O, a variety of approaches were used to enrich and isolate heterotrophic micro-organisms, and isolates were screened for nitrate reduction ability. Nitrate-respiring isolates were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Thermus thermophilus (31 isolates) and T. oshimai (three isolates). All isolates reduced nitrate to N 2O but not to dinitrogen and were unable to grow with N 2O as a terminal electron acceptor. Representative T. thermophilus and T. oshimai strains contained genes with 96-98% and 93% DNA identity, respectively, to the nitrate reductase catalytic subunit gene (narG) of T. thermophilus HB8. These data implicate T. thermophilus and T. oshimai in high flux of N 2O in GBS and raise questions about the genetic basis of the incomplete denitrification pathway in these organisms and on the fate of biogenic N 2O in geothermal environments.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 471-480 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Geobiology |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2011 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- General Environmental Science
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences