Understanding the characteristics of biogeochemical processes in
urban channel confluences is essential for the evaluation and improvement
of water environmental capacity. However, influences of biogeochemical
processes in confluence were always overlooked or simply parametrized
since the transformation processes controlled by microbial community
assembly were hard to quantify. To address this knowledge gap, the
present study proposed a novel mathematical modeling system, based
on microbial community assembly theory and fluid kinetics, to decouple
nitrogen dynamics into flow-induced transport and microorganism-induced
transformation processes, and quantified their contributions to nitrogen
concentrations. Results revealed that variable selection processes
(including hydrodynamic conditions) contributed to significant difference
in microbial communities among different hydraulic regions. Variation
in microbial communities further shifted transformation processes. Rhodobacterales and Sphingomonadales, which
were reported to be vital participants in denitrification process,
were enriched in flow separation region, and promoted it as a hotspot
for nitrogen removal. In the flow separation region, microorganism-induced
transformation processes accounted for 56% of total nitrogen removal,
which was significantly higher than that in other regions (12% on
average; p < 0.01). Results and findings could
provide useful information for the improvement of water environmental
capacity.