Denitrification In Natural, Converted, and Restored Wetlands of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.

In the last several decades, there has been considerable effort to protect and restore wetlands throughout the USA.  These efforts have required significant investment of both private and public funds.  Accordingly, it has become important to document the effectiveness of this protection and restoration.   The mid-Atlantic wetland assessment project is part of the Conservation Effectiveness Assessment Program (CEAP) of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.  It assesses natural, converted, and restored wetland projects from Delaware to North Carolina.  This paper reports an assessment of soil denitrification within this project using denitrification enzyme activity (DEA).  While the wetland types were not significantly different for total denitrification as measured by DEA, they were different in the amount of denitrification that only proceeded to nitrous oxide.  The percentage of this denitrification proceeding to nitrous oxide was highest in the natural and lowest in the converted wetlands.   As would be expected, there were differences in landscape positions with the wettest elevations producing the highest levels of DEA.