Living Without Oxygen
Oxygen Tolerance in Bacteria

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Many important chemical processes, such as nitrogen fixation and denitrification, are carried out by bacteria and often, the efficacy of the process is determined by the amount of oxygen present in the environment in which the bacteria live. Much of the time, these processes are carried out by facultatively anaerobic bacteria in the suboxic region of the lakes, oceans, sediments, and leaf litter. Do facultatively anaerobic photoautotrophs share the same tolerance for oxygen? How can differences in oxygen tolerance be tested? Of what significance is the tolerance for oxygen in the nitrogen cycle?

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