Question

Besides organic pollutants, dead zones are also affected by nitrogen compounds. Denitrifying bacteria in the anoxic dead zones can use nitrates and nitrites as electron acceptors, thereby generating nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. What is the term used for this process?

a. assimilatory nitrogen reduction
b. dissimilatory nitrogen reduction
c. nitrification
d. nitrogen fixation

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer to the question bus option B

DISSIMILATORY NITROGEN REDUCTION .

Explanation: When we talk about Dissimilaritory nitrogen reduction we simply mean an alternate form of respiration which occurs in the anoxic grown bacteria example purple photosynthetic bacteria.

Dissimilaritory nitrogen reduction is actually a type of denitrification which entails the denitrifying bacteria using nitrates or nitrites as electron acceptor and then reduce them to nitrogen gas. A series of intermediates are formed in this process of which Nitrous oxide is one of them, Nitrous oxide is a green house gas.

However,the main difference we can see between assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrogen reduction is that in the assimilatory pathway of nitrate reduction, ammonia will be formed which is utilized for the biosynthesis as a source of nitrogen. While in dissimilatory pathway, ammonia formation do not take place.