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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 63(4)

Feammox in the Yellow River Delta wetlands is weak

Qingsong Guan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8603-3502 A B C * , Shuo Li B , Yiqiao Zhou B , Fan Yang B , Xiang Zhao A and Qingjia Meng A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Environment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.

B College of Application of Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Sanmenxia 472000, China.

C Breeding Base for State Key Lab. of Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration in Northwestern China/Key Lab. of Restoration and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystems in Northwestern China of Ministry of Education, Ningxia 750000, China.

* Correspondence to: mengqj@craes.org.cn, guanqinsong163@163.com

Handling Editor: Nathan Basiliko

Soil Research 63, SR24220 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR24220
Submitted: 24 December 2024  Accepted: 22 April 2025  Published: 9 May 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled with iron (III) reduction (feammox) is an important nitrogen loss pathway in natural ecosystems. This is the first research to investigate the feammox process in the Yellow River Delta wetlands.

Aims

To reveal the nitrogen (N) loss caused by feammox in the Yellow River Delta wetland.

Methods

Slurry incubation, N isotope tracer technology, and metagenomic sequencing were used to study the feammox process and nitrogen-cycling functional microorganisms and genes.

Key results

Feammox was not detected in the Phragmites australis-covered (Phragmites) and mudflat (Mudflat) sites, and the feammox rate in the willow-covered site (Willow) was 0.02 mg N kg−1 d−1, accounting for 0.2% of the total N loss, which was lower than in other types of wetlands. The contributions of anammox to N loss were 32% (Phragmites), 17% (Mudflat), and 31% (Willow). Denitrification gene abundance was the highest, accounting for more than 40%, and anammox genes were not detected. The dominant genus of feammox functional microorganisms at Willow site was Anaeromyxobacter with an abundance of 62%, and the dominant genus at Phragmites and Mudflat sites was Pseudomonas, with abundances of 79% and 82%, respectively.

Conclusions

Feammox in the Yellow River Delta Wetland was weak, and denitrification was the main N removal pathway.

Implications

Further research is required to study why feammox rate is low in the Yellow River Delta wetlands.

Keywords: anammox, denitrification, feammox, functional genes, iron-reducing bacteria, nitrogen removal, wetland sediment, Yellow River Delta.

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