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Nitrogen Cycling In A Microcosm Simulation Of The Northern Arm Of The Great Salt Lake, John C. Stube

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nitrogen cycling was studied in the hypersaline northern arm of the Great Salt Lake (332,480 mg/l total dissolved solids) using a sediment-water microcosm simulation of that system. The study demonstrated that nitrate, ammonia, and urea were not stimulating to the halophilic bacteria in the microcosm. The bacteria were simulated only indirectly simulated bacterial growth. In addition, no nitrification could be demonstrated during the study.

Weekly analyses of water samples from the north arm of the lake itself showed that nitrate and nitrite were absent, leaving ammonia as the only significant form of inorganic nitrogen in the northern lake basin. Other …