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Direct Measurement of Oxygen Profiles and Denitrification Rates in Soil Aggregates¹

ABSTRACT

An oxygen microelectrode was modified to measure O₂ concentrations in wet aggregates of a silt loam soil. The microelectrode tip had an O₂-permeable membrane opening 3 µm in diameter, and O₂ measurements could be made in as little as 0.1-mm increments to a depth of 12 mm. When aggregates were incubated in air, steep O₂ gradients usually occurred over very small distances from the aggregate surface. The smallest aggregate exhibiting an anaerobic center had a radius of 4 mm, although small aggregates (radius 6 mm) were generally oxic. Larger aggregates (radius 10 mm) often had measureable anaerobic centers, with the exception of those from a native prairie soil which exhibited irregular O₂ profiles and had aerobic centers, apparently due to O₂ intrusion caused by old root channels. Oxygen profiles obtained in 45 degree increments around an aggregate circumference were used to construct contour maps of O₂ concentrations within the aggregate. Oxygen gradients were somewhat asymmetric, suggesting nonuniformly distributed sites of O₂ consumption. An average intra-aggregate O₂ diffusion coefficient of 8.5 x 10^–6 cm² · s^–1 was measured for water-saturated aggregates. The radii of anaerobic centers within several aggregates, measured directly with the electrode, correlated with those calculated from a model of radial diffusion using measured respiration rates and the intra-aggregate O₂ diffusion coefficient. Anaerobic centers were present in all aggregates that denitrified, but not all aggregates with anaerobic zones denitrified. The denitrification rate did not correlate with the size of the anaerobic zone, indicating that factors other than anaerobic volume contributed to the observed rates.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Crop & Soils Sciences and of Microbiology & Public Health, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824-1114. Published as Journal Article no. 11229 of the Michigan Agric. Exp. Stn. This work was supported by National Science Foundation grants DEB-80-12168 and DEB-81-09994.

² Former Graduate Student, Visiting Assistant Professor, Research Associate, and Professor of Soil Microbiology, respectively. Present addresses: A.J.S., Division of Plant & Soil Sciences, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV 26506; N.P.R. Inst. for Genetics & Ecology, Univ. of Aarhus, DK-8000, Aarhus, Denmark; and T.B.P., Soil Nitrogen & Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Beltsville Agric. Res. Center, Beltsville, MD 20975.

Received for publication June 4, 1984. Accepted for publication January 4, 1985.

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