Nitrite consumption and associated isotope changes during a river flood event

Jacob, Juliane; Sanders, Tina; Dähnke, Kirstin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-5649-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-5649-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-5649-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 19

Research article

|

11 Oct 2016

Research article |

| 11 Oct 2016

Nitrite consumption and associated isotope changes during a river flood event

Juliane Jacob, Tina Sanders, and Kirstin Dähnke

Data sets

Abflussdaten der Elbe bei Neu Darchau, Tagesmittelwerte Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Lauenburg http://koflux1.hzg.de/staff/kappenberg/runoff_data/elbe.abfluss

Short summary

During a flood in the Elbe in June 2013, a unique co-occurrence of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate in the water column was found. SPM and nutrient concentrations as well as isotopes were analysed. We calculated an isotope effect ¹⁵ε of −10.0 ± 0.1 ‰ during net nitrite and ¹⁵ε of −4.0 ± 0.1 ‰ and ¹⁸ε of −5.3 ± 0.1 ‰ during net nitrate consumption. A simple box-model calculation results in combined riparian denitrification and 22 to 36 % nitrification.