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Nitrogen species control the interaction between NO3--N reduction and aniline degradation and microbial community structure in the oxic-anoxic transition zone

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Abstract

Contrary to the fact that NO3−-N can serve as electron acceptor to promote organics degradation, it was also found NO3−-N reduction does not necessarily promote organics degradation. We speculate nitrogen (N) species may control the interaction between NO3−-N reduction and organics degradation via shifting related microbial community structure. To prove the hypothesis, oxic-anoxic transition zone (OATZ) microcosms simulated by lake water and sediment were conducted with the addition of N species (NO3−-N, NO2−-N, and NH4+-N) and aniline as typical organics. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the microbial community structure and functional enzyme in the microcosms. Results show that, NO2−-N inhibited NO3−-N reduction while enhanced aniline degradation. For NH4+-N, it promoted NO3−-N reduction when NH4+-N/NO3−-N concentration ratio ≤ 2 and inhibited aniline degradation when NH4+-N/aniline concentration ratio ≥ 0.5. The presence of NO2−-N or NH4+-N weakened the interaction between NO3−-N reduction and aniline degradation, which might be caused by significant changes in the diversity and abundance of microbial communities controlled by N species. The microbial mechanism indicates that NO2−-N weakened the interaction by affecting both denitrification enzyme activity and electron transfer capability, while NH4+-N weakened the interaction mainly by affecting electron transfer capability. These results imply that N species, as well as other electron acceptors and donors, in the contaminated OATZ should be fully considered, when performing in situ remediation technology of NO3−-N reduction.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Funding

7This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Program No. 41601338 and No. 41502240), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Program No. 2018JQ4019), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Program No. 3102018zy042), and National College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (S201910699176).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, China

    Xiaoyan Liu, Yaoguo Wu, Ran Sun, Sihai Hu, Zixia Qiao, Sichang Wang & Zehong Zhang

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  1. Xiaoyan Liu
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  2. Yaoguo Wu
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  3. Ran Sun
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  4. Sihai Hu
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  5. Zixia Qiao
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  7. Zehong Zhang
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Contributions

Yaoguo Wu: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing original draft and revision, supervision; Xiaoyan Liu: investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft; Ran Sun: resources, funding acquisition; Sihai Hu: resources, funding acquisition; Zixia Qiao: investigation, editing; Sichang Wang: investigation, formal analysis; Zehong Zhang: investigation, formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Yaoguo Wu or Ran Sun.

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Liu, X., Wu, Y., Sun, R. et al. Nitrogen species control the interaction between NO3--N reduction and aniline degradation and microbial community structure in the oxic-anoxic transition zone. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 29650–29664 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12627-0

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