Physical constraints for respiration in microbial hotspots in soil and their importance for denitrification

Schlüter, Steffen; Zawallich, Jan; Vogel, Hans-Jörg; Dörsch, Peter

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3665-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3665-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3665-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 18

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

27 Sep 2019

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 27 Sep 2019

Physical constraints for respiration in microbial hotspots in soil and their importance for denitrification

Steffen Schlüter, Jan Zawallich, Hans-Jörg Vogel, and Peter Dörsch

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https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3665-2019-supplement

Data sets

Dataset - Schlueter_et_al_2019_Biogeosciences S. Schlüter http://www.ufz.de/record/dmp/archive/

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Short summary

A combination of gas chromatography and X-ray CT reveals the microscale processes that govern soil respiration. Aerobic and anaerobic respiration in microbial hotspots depends not only on the quality and quantity of soil organic matter, but also on the spatial distribution of hotspots. Denitrification kinetics are mainly governed by hotspot architecture due to local competition for oxygen during growth. Cumulative behavior is mainly governed by water saturation due to the overall supply with O₂.