Integrated assessment of ammonia-nitrogen in water environments and its exposure to ecology and human health

Abstract Anthropogenic nutrient pollution in the aquatic system has always been the most challenging and costly environmental problem caused due to surplus amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. Ammonia, being a major part of a mammal’s metabolism, is considered to be a major indicator of possible contaminated water due to bacterial, sewage, and animal waste. In the environment, ammonia occurs naturally, but in water and soil most of the ammonia produced is due to bacterial degradation of wastes. In water, ammonia go through complex biochemical transformations constituting the Nitrogen cycle mainly facilitated by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and ammonia-oxidizing archea. Applicability of molecular biology techniques nowadays have the potential to characterize and understand the ammonia oxidizers’ community and their mechanisms entirely. To critically analyze the load of ammonia, an ISO approved analytical tool Life Cycle Assessment have been regularly put to practice for risk assessment on both environmental and human health as well as its crucial role in sustainable resource recovery.