Fish-meal factories generate waste waters with high chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), fats and protein concentrations. After their treatment by anaerobic digestion, effluents with high ammoniaand organic-nitrogen contents and a fraction of residual COD are produced. A biological nitrification/denitrification process is proposed to reduce both the residual carbon and the nitro...

Active expression of putative ammonia monooxygenase gene subunit A (amoA) of marine group I Crenarchaeota has been detected in the Black Sea water column. It reached its maximum, as quantified by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR, exactly at the nitrate maximum or the nitrification zone modeled in the lower oxic zone. Crenarchaeal amoA expression could explain 74.5% of the nitrite variatio...

The broiler (Gallus gallus domesticus) industry in the United States and several other countries routinely includes subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics such as roxarsone, virginiamycin, and bacitracin in the feed to improve bird growth yields. Large fractions of the antibiotics fed to the birds are excreted in manure (litter), which is often applied to soils to improve fertility. Some concerns...

Phenol biodegradation under aerobic conditions and its effect on the nitrification process were studied, first in batch assays and then in an activated sludge reactor. In batch assays, phenol was completely biodegraded at concentrations ranging from 100 to 2500 mg l(-1). Phenol was inhibitory to the nitrification process, showing more inhibition at higher initial phenol concentrations. At initi...

Three nucleic acid probes, two for autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria of the beta subdivision of the class Proteobacteria and one for alpha subdivision nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, were developed and used to study nitrifying bacterial phylotypes associated with various freshwater and seawater aquarium biofilters. Nitrosomonas europaea and related species were detected in all nitrifying seawa...

We have developed a 3D dry lift-off process to localize multiple types of nitrifying bacteria in polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) cubes for enhanced nitrification, a two-step biological process that converts ammonium to nitrite and then to nitrate. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) is responsible for converting ammonia into nitrite, and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) is responsible for c...

This article reports on high-rate nitrification at low pH in biofilm and suspended-biomass reactors by known chemolithotrophic bacteria. In the biofilm reactor, at low pH (4.3 +/- 0.1) and low bulk ammonium concentrations (9.3 +/- 3.3 mg.liter(-1)), a very high nitrification rate of 5.6 g of N oxidized.liter(-1).day(-1) was achieved. The specific nitrification rate (0.55 g of N.g of biomass(-1)...

Summer cyanobacterial blooms caused an elevation in pH (9 to ∼10.5) that lasted for weeks in the shallow and tidal-fresh region of the Sassafras River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay (USA). Elevated pH promoted desorption of sedimentary inorganic phosphorus and facilitated conversion of ammonium (NH+4 ) to ammonia (NH3). In this study, we investigated pH effects on exchangeable NH+4 desorption, ...

The fumigant methyl iodide (MeI, iodomethane) is considered a promising alternative to methyl bromide (MeBr) for soil-borne pest control in high-cash-value crops. However, the high vapor pressure of MeI results in emissions of a significant proportion of the applied mass into the ambient air, and this may lead to pollution of the environment. Integrating the application of certain agrochemicals...