Denitrifying community in coastal sediments performs aerobic and anaerobic respiration simultaneously

in sandy sediments. This allows microbes to respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions, but also means that denitrification is utilized as an auxiliary respiration under aerobic conditions when imbalances occur in electron donor and acceptor supply. Aerobic denitrification therefore contributes significantly to N-loss in permeable sediments making the process an important sink for anthropogenic N-inputs.