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Denitrification In The Hypolimnion Of Permanently Ice-Covered Lake Bonney, Antarctica, B. B. Ward, J. Granger, M. T. Maldonado, K. L. Casciotti, S. Harris, Mark Wells

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The distribution of denitrification was investigated in the hypolimnion of the east and west lobes of permanently ice-covered Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Anomalously high concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and nitrous oxide) in the oxygen-depleted hypolimnion of the east lobe of the Lake implied that denitrification is or was active in the west, but not in the east lobe. While previous investigations reported no detectable denitrification in the east lobe, we measured active denitrification in samples from both the east and west lobes. In the west lobe, measured denitrification rates exhibited a maximum at the …