“…Both groups use ammonia as their sole energy source ( Konneke et al, 2014 ; Lehtovirta-Morley et al, 2016 ), although some of them are reported to be able to assimilate amino acids ( Mussmann et al, 2011 ). As a result of their importance in nitrogen cycling and their potential use in ammonia removal, for instance through coupled nitrification–denitrification processes, AOA and AOB have been well-studied in various habitats, including oceans ( Francis et al, 2005 ; Sintes et al, 2015 ), estuaries ( Zheng et al, 2014 ; Smith et al, 2015 ), lakes ( Liu and Yang, 2021 ), soils ( Pester et al, 2012 ; Shen et al, 2021 ), and wetlands ( Wang et al, 2013 , 2019 ). For example, many factors have been shown to affect the composition and abundance of AOB and AOA, including pH, temperature, salinity ( Santos et al, 2020 ), ammonia concentration ( Taylor et al, 2012 ), nutrient levels ( Dai et al, 2018 ), competition ( French et al, 2021 ), and predators ( Kim et al, 2019 ).…”