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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
Stable carbon isotopic fractionations associated with inorganic carbon fixation by anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing
Stefan Schouten1, Marc Strous, Marcel M M Kuypers
1Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, 1790 AB Den Burgh, The Netherlands. schouten@nioz.nl
Abstract:
Isotopic analyses of Candidatus "Brocadia anammoxidans," a chemolithoautotrophic bacterium that anaerobically oxidizes ammonium (anammox), show that it strongly fractionates against (13)C; i.e., lipids are depleted by up to 47 per thousand versus CO(2). Similar results were obtained for the anammox bacterium Candidatus "Scalindua sorokinii," which thrives in the anoxic water column of the Black Sea, suggesting that different anammox bacteria use identical carbon fixation pathways, which may be either the Calvin cycle or the acetyl coenzyme A pathway.
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