To investigate the magnitude of denitrification and assimilatory nitrate reduction as these reactions relate to the fate of nitrate reaching sediments via groundwater seepage, undisturbed core samples of sediments (40 cm length) from two lakes (Mendota and Tomahawk) were leached from the bottom (at 1.4 cm/day) with a solution of 15 N‐nitrate (10 mg N/liter). The sediment columns were fitted with Pt electrodes to measure the oxidation‐reduction (Eh) potential. While leaching removed considerable ammonium‐N and soluble organic N, essentially no 15 N had passed through the columns by 50 days. The Eh readings indicated that denitrification was occurring in the lower portions of the columns. The 15 N distribution of the sediment N after 50 days showed that about 15 to 26% of the added nitrate‐N was converted to organic N and ammonium‐N. The data show that denitrification can be a significant N sink in seepage lakes.
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Chen et al. (1974) studied this question.
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