Sergey Nikolayevich Winogradsky, Winogradsky also spelled Vinogradsky (born Sept. 1, 1856, Kiev, Russian Empire [now in Ukraine] died Feb. 25, 1953, Brie-Comte-Robert, France) Russian microbiologist whose discoveries concerning the physiology of the processes of nitrification and nitrogen fixation by soil bacteria helped to establish bacteriology as a major biological science.
Changing fire regimes and additional unburnt biomass may alter soil N2O dynamics through changes in the microbial processes of nitrification and de-nitrification.
Among these losses is the soil emission of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) which is mainly produced by the soil microbial processes of nitrification and denitrification.
Formation in the soil as a side-product of the biological processes of nitrification and denitrification is believed to account for as much as 90%% of the global atmospheric N2O (Ma et al. 2007; Snyder et al. 2009).
Nitrous oxide emitted to the atmosphere via the soil processes of nitrification and denitrification plays an important role in the greenhouse gas balance of the atmosphere and is involved in the destruction of stratospheric ozone.
Temperature distributions in ground are important, for example, for calculations of heat losses of buildings to the ground, for design of thermal energy storage equipment and ground heat exchangers, and for analysis of biodegradation processes of organic substances and processes of nitrification.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is produced naturally in the soil during the microbial processes of nitrification and denitrification.
Because fixed forms of N are continuously sequestered into sediments, rendering them unavailable for metabolism, and because they are also continuously converted to N2 through the combined processes of nitrification and denitrification, life can only be sustained by conversion of N2 to NH3.
As these organisms die, certain microbes such as detritivores are able to participate in the decomposition of organic nitrogen into ammonia (ammonification), providing a constant supply of ammonia to be used in the process of nitrification.
Although plants can assimilate ammonia as well as nitrates, most of the ammonia in the soil is converted to nitrites (NO2−) and then to nitrates by certain aerobic bacteria through the oxidative process of nitrification.
