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Moisture and temperature controls on nitrification differ among ammonia oxidizer communities from three alpine soil habitats

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Abstract

Climate change is altering the timing and magnitude of biogeochemical fluxes in many highelevation ecosystems. The consequent changes in alpine nitrification rates have the potential to influence ecosystem scale responses. In order to better understand how changing temperature and moisture conditions may influence ammonia oxidizers and nitrification activity, we conducted laboratory incubations on soils collected in a Colorado watershed from three alpine habitats (glacial outwash, talus, and meadow). We found that bacteria, not archaea, dominated all ammonia oxidizer communities. Nitrification increased with moisture in all soils and under all temperature treatments. However, temperature was not correlated with nitrification rates in all soils. Site-specific temperature trends suggest the development of generalist ammonia oxidzer communities in soils with greater in situ temperature fluctuations and specialists in soils with more steady temperature regimes. Rapidly increasing temperatures and changing soil moisture conditions could explain recent observations of increased nitrate production in some alpine soils.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Brooke B. Osborne, Jill S. Baron & Matthew D. Wallenstein

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Brooke B. Osborne

  3. U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    Jill S. Baron

  4. Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Matthew D. Wallenstein

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  1. Brooke B. Osborne
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  2. Jill S. Baron
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Correspondence to Brooke B. Osborne.

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Osborne, B.B., Baron, J.S. & Wallenstein, M.D. Moisture and temperature controls on nitrification differ among ammonia oxidizer communities from three alpine soil habitats. Front. Earth Sci. 10, 1–12 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-015-0556-x

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