Nitrification in nature is a two-step oxidation process of ammonium () or ammonia () to nitrite () and then to nitrate () catalyzed by two ubiquitous bacterial groups growing together. The first reaction is oxidation of ammonium to nitrite by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) represented by members of Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria. Further organisms able to oxidize ammonia are Archaea (AOA).
The second reaction is oxidation of nitrite () to nitrate by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), represented by the members of Nitrospinota, Nitrospirota, Pseudomonadota, and Chloroflexota.
This two-step process was described already in 1890 by the Ukrainian microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky.
Ammonia can be also oxidized completely to nitrate by one comammox bacterium.