Nitrogen loss through anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled with ferric iron reduction in the Yellow River Wetland, Sanmenxia, China

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled with iron(III) reduction (Feammox) is a recently discovered pathway of nitrogen removal. However, little is known about the pathways of N transformation via Feammox in the Yellow River wetland. In this study, the difference between Feammox in a natural wetland (site YJW) and a crop rotation wetland (site TEH) was researched using isotope tracing and metagenome techniques. The results revealed that Feammox occurred in TEH but not in YJW. The Feammox rates in the TEH samples were 0.02–0.13 mg N kg⁻¹ d⁻¹ in different depth intervals (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm), and the maximum value for TEH occurred in the 5–10 cm depth interval. Iron reducing bacteria play an essential role in Feammox. Rotational tillage reduced the microbial diversity of the iron-reducing bacteria, but it increased the abundance of iron-reducing bacteria at the genus level, and the dominate iron-reducing bacteria responsible for the Feammox process were Anaeromyxobacter and Geobacter. The Feammox rate was less than the denitrification rate (0.55–1.09 mg N kg⁻¹ d⁻¹), an estimated nitrogen loss of 1.1–7.1 t N km⁻² a⁻¹ was associated with the Feammox in the wetland. However, the correlation between the functional genes of the iron-reducing bacteria and the rate remains unclear.