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Fungal and bacterial contributions to codenitrification emissions of N2O and N2 following urea deposition to soil

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Abstract

Grazed pastures contribute significantly to anthropogenic emissions of N2O but the respective contributions of archaea, bacteria and fungi to codenitrification in such systems is unresolved. This study examined the relative contributions of bacteria and fungi to rates of denitrification and codenitrification under a simulated ruminant urine event. It was hypothesised that fungi would be primarily responsible for both codenitrification and total N2O and N2 emissions. The effects of bacterial (streptomycin), fungal (cycloheximide), and combined inhibitor treatments were measured in a laboratory mesocosm experiment, on soil that had received 15N labelled urea. Soil inorganic-N concentrations, N2O and N2 gas fluxes were measured over 51 days. On Days 42 and 51, when nitrification was actively proceeding in the positive control, the inhibitor treatments inhibited nitrification as evidenced by increased soil NH +4 -N concentrations and decreased soil NO −2 -N and NO −3 -N concentrations. Codenitrification was observed to contribute to total fluxes of both N2O (≥ 33%) and N2 (≥ 3%) in urine-amended grassland soils. Cycloheximide inhibition decreased NH +4 –15N enrichment and reduced N2O fluxes while reducing the contribution of codenitrification to total N2O fluxes by ≥ 66 and ≥ 42%, respectively. Thus, given archaea do not respond to significant urea deposition, it is proposed that fungi, not bacteria, dominated total N2O fluxes, and the codenitrification N2O fluxes, from a simulated urine amended pasture soil.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the New Zealand Government through the New Zealand Fund for Global Partnerships in Livestock Emissions Research to support the objectives of the Livestock Research Group of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (Agreement Number: 16084). The first author gratefully acknowledges funding received from the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Scheme. The authors specially thank the members of analytical service; Roger Cresswell, Qian Liang, Manjula Premaratne, Rebecca Dsouza and Emily Huang for performing most of the analytical work. We acknowledge also Lynne Clucas, Leanne Hassall, Nimlesh Balaine, Jen Owens, Camilla Gardiner, Tihana Vujinović, Yuan Li and Kathrin Affeld, for their help whenever it was necessary.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil and Physical Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, Lincoln, 7647, New Zealand

    David Rex & Timothy J. Clough

  2. Environmental Research Centre, Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland

    David Rex, Karl G. Richards & Gary J. Lanigan

  3. AgResearch Invermay, Mosgiel, New Zealand

    Cecile de Klein

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Otago School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Sergio E. Morales & Md Sainur Samad

  5. Statistics and Applied Physics, Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15, Ireland

    Jim Grant

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  1. David Rex
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Rex, D., Clough, T.J., Richards, K.G. et al. Fungal and bacterial contributions to codenitrification emissions of N2O and N2 following urea deposition to soil. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 110, 135–149 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-017-9901-7

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