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Oxidation of Nitrite to Nitrate in a Soil Column¹

ABSTRACT

A previously derived model for disappearance of nitrite with depth in an open soil system was tested with an especially built column filled with a sand-soil mixture. Apparent rate constants for nitrification increased with an increase of population of nitrifiers as was expected. Nitrifiers increased almost logistically during two months in the upper portion of the column and reached a maximum population, but numbers fluctuated below the maximum population at lower depths. A decline in population density after a maximum was reached at a lower depth is attributed to partial starvation, owing to nearly complete oxidation of nitrite in the upper regions and to oxygen depletion.

¹ Contribution from the College of Agr. Sci., Univ. of California, Berkeley. Supported by the Kearney Foundation of Soil Science.

² Assistant Research Chemist, Graduate Research Assistant, and Professor of Soil Biology, respectively, Dep. of Soils and Plant Nutrition, Univ. of California, Berkeley 94720.

Received for publication May 15, 1972. Accepted for publication October 18, 1972.