Conservation in soil of h(2) liberated from n(2) fixation by hup nodules.

Pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan) were grown in large soil columns (90-cm length by 30-cm diameter) and inoculated with four different strains of cowpea rhizobia, which varied with respect to hydrogen uptake activity (Hup). Despite the profuse liberation of H(2) from Hup nodules in vitro, H(2) gas was not detected in any of the soil columns. When H(2) was injected into the columns, the rates of consumption were highest in the treatments (including control) containing Hup nodules (218 and 177 nmol . h . cm) and lowest in the Hup treatments (158, 92, and 64 nmoles . h . cm). In situ H(2) uptake rates in small soil cores at fixed distances from the nodules decreased exponentially with distance from the nodule (R = 0.99). This decrease in H(2) consumption was associated with a similar decrease in numbers of H(2)-oxidizing chemolithotrophic bacteria as determined by the most-probable-number method. On the basis of two equations derived separately upon diffusive theory (Fix's Law) and kinetic theory (Michaelis-Menten), the empirically derived rate constants and coefficients indicated that all of the H(2) emitted from Hup nodules would be consumed by H(2)-oxidizing bacteria within a 3- to 4.5-cm radius of the nodule surface. It is concluded that H(2) is not lost from the soil-plant ecosystem during N(2) fixation in C. cajan but is conserved by H(2)-oxidizing bacteria.