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Modeling denitrification in aquatic sediments

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Abstract

Sediment denitrification is a major pathway of fixed nitrogen loss from aquatic systems. Due to technical difficulties in measuring this process and its spatial and temporal variability, estimates of local, regional and global denitrification have to rely on a combination of measurements and models. Here we review approaches to describing denitrification in aquatic sediments, ranging from mechanistic diagenetic models to empirical parameterizations of nitrogen fluxes across the sediment-water interface. We also present a compilation of denitrification measurements and ancillary data for different aquatic systems, ranging from freshwater to marine. Based on this data compilation we reevaluate published parameterizations of denitrification. We recommend that future models of denitrification use (1) a combination of mechanistic diagenetic models and measurements where bottom-waters are temporally hypoxic or anoxic, and (2) the much simpler correlations between denitrification and sediment oxygen consumption for oxic bottom waters. For our data set, inclusion of bottom water oxygen and nitrate concentrations in a multivariate regression did not improve the statistical fit.

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Abbreviations

DNRA:

Dissimalatory nitrate reduction to ammonium

ODUs:

Oxygen-demand units

SFM:

Sediment flux model

SOC:

Sediment oxygen consumption

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Acknowledgments

Discussions reflected in this paper were initiated in November 2006 at a Modeling Workshop organized by the Research Coordination Network on Denitrification (http://www.denitrification.org/). We thank the organizers and gratefully acknowledge the constructive criticism from Eric Davidson and two anonymous reviewers. We thank Jane Tucker for working up the data sets from Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor. Financial support for AEG to work on the manuscript came from NSF NSF-DEB-0423565. KF, DB and DDT acknowledge support from NOAA CHRP grant NA07NOS4780191. NOAA publication number 102.

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Author notes

  1. Mark J. McCarthy

    Present address: Département Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford St, Halifax, NS, Canada, B3H 4J1

    Katja Fennel

  2. University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Damian Brady & Dominic DiToro

  3. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Robinson W. Fulweiler

  4. Marine Science Institute, The University of Texas at Austin Port, Aransas, TX, USA

    Wayne S. Gardner & Mark J. McCarthy

  5. Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center, Woods Hole, MA, USA

    Anne Giblin

  6. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

    Alexandra Rao

  7. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers/NOAA CMER Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Sybil Seitzinger

  8. Water Resources Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland

    Marie Thouvenot-Korppoo

  9. University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Craig Tobias

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  1. Katja Fennel
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Correspondence to Katja Fennel.

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Fennel, K., Brady, D., DiToro, D. et al. Modeling denitrification in aquatic sediments. Biogeochemistry 93, 159–178 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-008-9270-z

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