Abstract:Human activities introduced increased amounts of nitrogen in coastal oceans, causing eutrophication and numerous ecological and environmental problems. It is crucial to better illustrate and understand the function and contribution of the microbe-driving nitrogen cycle within the coastal ecosystems, especially under the global change background. This review focuses on the rates, fluxes, contribution and functional gene quantity of microbes in nitrogen fixation, ammonification, nitrification, denitrification, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, and anammox in coastal sediments. The controls of major physiochemical and biological factors (e.g. temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, labile dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, submerged?macrophytes and benthic animals) on these processes, as well as functionally related microbial groups and pathways (e.g. ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea and nitrate reduction), are summarized.
