Aerobic nitrification of ammonia to nitrite and nitrate is a key process in the oceanic nitrogen cycling mediated by prokaryotes. Apart from Bacteria belonging to the beta- and gamma-Proteobacteria involved in the first nitrification step, Crenarchaeota have recently been recognized as main drivers of the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite in soil as well as in the ocean, as indicated by the dominance of archaeal ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) genes over bacterial amoA. Evidence is accumulating that archaeal amoA genes are common in a wide range of marine systems. Essentially, all these reports focused on surface and mesopelagic (200-1,000 m depth) waters, where ammonia concentrations are higher than in waters below 1,000 m depth. However, Crenarchaeota are also abundant in the water column below 1,000 m, where ammonia concentrations are extremely low. Here we show that, throughout the North Atlantic Ocean, the abundance of archaeal amoA genes decreases markedly from subsurface waters to 4,000 m depth, and from subpolar to equatorial deep waters, leading to pronounced vertical and latitudinal gradients in the ratio of archaeal amoA to crenarchaeal 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The lack of significant copy numbers of amoA genes and the very low fixation rates of dark carbon dioxide in the bathypelagic North Atlantic suggest that most bathypelagic Crenarchaeota are not autotrophic ammonia oxidizers: most likely, they utilize organic matter and hence live heterotrophically.

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Insoluble plutonium- and americium-bearing colloidal particles formed during simulated weathering of a high-level nuclear waste glass. Nearly 100 percent of the total plutonium and americium in test ground water was concentrated in these submicrometer particles. These results indicate that models of actinide mobility and repository integrity, which assume complete solubility of actinides in ground water, underestimate the potential for radionuclide release into the environment. A colloid-trapping mechanism may be necessary for a waste repository to meet long-term performance specifications.

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