Investigations on nitrification in the water and the sediment of the Kiel Bight (Baltic Sea)

The results of this study show that chemoautrophic nitrification is the most important source ot nitrate in the brackish water of the Kiel Bight. The main nitrification potential is localized in the sediment. Nitrification activities were measured from January to March 1978 in a sand sediment from a beach station in the Kiel Fjord and in March and May 1979 in the sand sediment of the central Kiel Bight. The nitrification rates measured at the beach station lay between 0.9 x 10-3 μgat N/cm3 x h and 4.5 x 10-3 μgat N/cm3 x h and in the Kiel Bight between 1.9 x 10-2 μgat N/cm3 x h and 4.7 x 10-2 μgat N/cm3 x h