Fish and Shellfish Aquaculture Impact on the Sediment Bacterial Communities in Xiangshan Bay, China

Table 2

Proportions of functional genes involved in nitrate reduction between different sampling seasons.

Sampling seasons	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
Aerobic ammonia oxidation (%)	2.25 ± 0.94^a	2.43 ± 0.78^b	2.66 ± 0.60^c	4.46 ± 1.72^abc
Aerobic nitrite oxidation (%)	1.84 ± 1.20^ab	2.49 ± 1.45	3.41 ± 1.33^a	3.38 ± 1.65^b
Nitrification (%)	4.08 ± 2.04^ab	4.92 ± 2.14^c	6.06 ± 1.65^a	7.84 ± 2.79^bc
Nitrate respiration (%)	0.21 ± 0.15	0.14 ± 0.18	0.10 ± 0.09	0.34 ± 0.47
Nitrate reduction (%)	0.56 ± 0.37	0.63 ± 0.42^a	0.34 ± 0.14^ab	0.90 ± 0.62^b

Samples labeled with the same letter are significantly different at 0.05 level.