RT journal article
T1 Mechanistic understanding of nitrate reduction as the dominant production pathway of nitrous oxide in marine oxygen minimum zones
A1 Xin, Sun
A1 Frey, Claudia
A1 McCoy, Daniel
A1 Spieler, Matthias B. A
A1 Kelly, Colette L.
A1 Maloney, Ashley E.
A1 García Robledo, Emilio Guillermo
A1 Lehmann, Moritz F.
A1 Ward, Bess B.
A1 Zakem, Emily J.
A2 Biología
K1 Bacteria
K1 Denitrification
K1 Ecosystem
K1 Nitrates
K1 Nitrous Oxide
K1 Oxidation-Reduction
K1 Oxygen
K1 Seawater
AB Nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting agent, isproduced intensely in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) predominantly throughnitrate reduction NO 3 ! N2O   . However, mechanisms and controls of thispathway remain unclear. Here, we investigate the microbial ecology governingthis pathway using experiments and an ecosystem model. We experimentallyconfirm a critical hypothesis: most NO 3 ! N2O denitrifiers do not utilizeextracellular nitrite, an intermediate of the pathway. Model results demonstrate that the NO 3 ! N2O pathway is compatible with oxygen, and that itsresponse to oxygen is heterogeneous because it is governed by niche partitioning of distinct microbial types and thus may not follow a smooth curve.Lastly, experiments demonstrate that this pathway is sensitive to the typeof organic matter, its electron acceptor, in addition to organic matter availability. These findings advance our mechanistic understanding of theprimary N2O production pathway, necessary for predictions of marineN2O emissions.
PB Nature Research
SN 2041-1723
YR 2025
FD 2025-10-07
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39310
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39310
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 21-sep-2026