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Nitrogen loading levels affect abundance and composition of soil ammonia oxidizing prokaryotes in semiarid temperate grassland

  • SOILS, SEC 5 • SOIL AND LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

Global nitrogen deposition has profound impact on the terrestrial ecosystem including the semiarid temperate grassland, causing vegetation community shifts and soil acidification. Little is known regarding the effect of nitrogen (N) deposition on the belowground microbial communities. This study aimed to examine the response of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) to added N in semiarid temperate grassland.

Materials and methods

We studied the changes of AOB and AOA by using molecular techniques targeting amoA genes along a urea fertilization gradient, i.e., 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 g N m−2 year−1, in a 6-year field experiment of semiarid temperate grassland, Inner Mongolia of China.

Results and discussion

AOB community responded to urea–N substrate clearly, and N addition rates 2–4 g N m−2 year−1 induced an increase in its abundances and the shift of its composition. However, AOA community remained unchanged and the highest N loading at 64 g N m−2 year−1 even decreased its abundance. Moreover, higher N loading rates (more than 16 g N m−2 year−1) significantly decreased the diversity of AOB but not AOA, as indicated by the decrease of its Shannon and Evenness indices.

Conclusions

The relative long-term nitrogen loading of more than 2–4 g N m−2 year−1 resulted in diversity loss of AOB in this semiarid temperate grassland. Increasing N loading altered AOB abundance and composition, but AOA showed nonsignificant changes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41020114001, 41025004 and 40871129) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-JC401). We are grateful to the Duolun Restoration Ecological Experimentation and Demonstration Station for access to the study sites and research facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, People’s Republic of China

    Xin-Yi Shen, Li-Mei Zhang, Ju-Pei Shen, Chao-Lei Yuan & Ji-Zheng He

  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate University, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Xin-Yi Shen & Chao-Lei Yuan

  3. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, People’s Republic of China

    Ling-Hao Li

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  1. Xin-Yi Shen
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  2. Li-Mei Zhang
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Correspondence to Li-Mei Zhang or Ji-Zheng He.

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Shen, XY., Zhang, LM., Shen, JP. et al. Nitrogen loading levels affect abundance and composition of soil ammonia oxidizing prokaryotes in semiarid temperate grassland. J Soils Sediments 11, 1243–1252 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0375-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0375-y

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