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Nitrogen cycling and water pulses in semiarid grasslands: are microbial and plant processes temporally asynchronous?

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Abstract

Precipitation pulses in arid ecosystems can lead to temporal asynchrony in microbial and plant processing of nitrogen (N) during drying/wetting cycles causing increased N loss. In contrast, more consistent availability of soil moisture in mesic ecosystems can synchronize microbial and plant processes during the growing season, thus minimizing N loss. We tested whether microbial N cycling is asynchronous with plant N uptake in a semiarid grassland. Using 15N tracers, we compared rates of N cycling by microbes and N uptake by plants after water pulses of 1 and 2 cm to rates in control plots without a water pulse. Microbial N immobilization, gross N mineralization, and nitrification dramatically increased 1–3 days after the water pulses, with greatest responses after the 2-cm pulse. In contrast, plant N uptake increased more after the 1-cm than after the 2-cm pulse. Both microbial and plant responses reverted to control levels within 10 days, indicating that both microbial and plant responses were short lived. Thus, microbial and plant processes were temporally synchronous following a water pulse in this semiarid grassland, but the magnitude of the pulse substantially influenced whether plants or microbes were more effective in acquiring N. Furthermore, N loss increased after both small and large water pulses (as shown by a decrease in total 15N recovery), indicating that changes in precipitation event sizes with future climate change could exacerbate N losses from semiarid ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Patrick McCusker, Sasha Podolak, Alison Eden, and Anita Kear for assistance in the field and laboratory. We thank Jana Heisler-White, Amy Angert, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. The study was supported by USDA-ARS and the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research Program funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB 0217631 and 0823405). F.A.D. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (FT100100779).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Level 4, Biomedical Building, 1 Central Avenue, Eveleigh, NSW, 2015, Australia

    Feike A. Dijkstra

  2. USDA-ARS, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    David J. Augustine

  3. Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Paul Brewer & Joseph C. von Fischer

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  1. Feike A. Dijkstra
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  2. David J. Augustine
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Correspondence to Feike A. Dijkstra.

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Communicated by Mercedes Bustamante.

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Dijkstra, F.A., Augustine, D.J., Brewer, P. et al. Nitrogen cycling and water pulses in semiarid grasslands: are microbial and plant processes temporally asynchronous?. Oecologia 170, 799–808 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2336-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2336-6

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