Dual nitrogen and oxygen isotope fractionation during anaerobic ammonium oxidation by anammox bacteria

Natural abundance of stable nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotopes are invaluable biogeochemical tracers for assessing the N transformations in the environment. To fully exploit these tracers, the N and O isotope effects ( 15 ε and 18 ε) associated with the respective nitrogen transformation processes must be known. However, the N and O isotope effects of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), one of the major fixed N sinks and NO 3 − producers, are not well known. Here, we report the dual N and O isotope effects associated with anammox by three different anammox bacteria including “ Ca . Scalindua japonica ”, a putative marine species, which were measured in continuous enrichment culture experiments. All three anammox species yielded similar N isotope effects of NH 4 + oxidation to N 2 ( 15 ε NH4→N2 ) ranging from 30.9‰ to 32.7‰ and inverse kinetic isotope effects of NO 2 − oxidation to NO 3 − ( 15 ε NO2→NO3 = −45.3‰ to −30.1‰). In contrast, 15 ε NO2→N2 (NO 2 − reduction to N 2 ) were significantly different among three species, which is probably because individual anammox bacteria species might possess different types of nitrite reductase. We also report the combined O isotope effects for NO 2 − oxidation ( 18 E NO2→NO3 ) by anammox bacteria. These obtained dual N and O isotopic effects could provide significant insights into the contribution of anammox bacteria to the fixed N loss and NO 2 − reoxidation (N recycling) in various natural environments.