Competition between Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria from Freshwater Environments
Elizabeth French, Jessica A. Kozlowski, Annette Bollmann
Abstract
Nitrification is an important process in the global nitrogen cycle. The first step, ammonia oxidation to nitrite, can be carried out by ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). In many natural environments, these ammonia oxidizers coexist. Therefore, it is important to understand the population dynamics in response to increasing ammonium concentrations. Here, we study the competition between AOA and AOB enriched from freshwater systems. The results demonstrate that AOA are more abundant in systems with low ammonium availabilities and that AOB are more abundant when the ammonium availability increases. These results will help to predict potential shifts in the community composition of ammonia oxidizers in the environment due to changes in ammonium availability.