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Nitrogen-fixation activity and the abundance and taxonomy of nifH genes in agricultural, pristine, and urban prairie stream sediments chronically exposed to different levels of nitrogen loading

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Abstract

Small streams exert great influences on the retention and attenuation of nitrogen (N) within stream networks. Human land use can lead to increased transport of dissolved inorganic N compounds and downstream eutrophication. Microbial activity in streams is important for maintaining an actively functioning N cycle. Chronically high N loading in streams affects the rates of the central processes of the N cycle by increasing rates of nitrification and denitrification, with biota exhibiting decreased efficiency of N use. The LINXII project measured N-cycle parameters in small streams using 15NO3− tracer release experiments. We concurrently measured N2 fixation rates in six streams of three types (agricultural, pristine, and urban prairie streams) as part of this broader study of major N-cycle processes. Nitrogen fixation in streams was significantly negatively correlated with nitrate levels, dissolved inorganic N levels, and denitrification rates. Algal mat and leaf litter samples generally exhibited the highest rates of N2 fixation. The abundance of nifH genes, as measured by real-time PCR, was marginally correlated with N2-fixation rates, but not to other N-cycle processes or stream characteristics. The nifH sequences observed were assigned to cyanobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Methylococcus, and Rhizobia. Seasonal changes, disturbances, and varying inputs may encourage a diverse, flexible, stable N2-fixing guild. Patchiness in the streams should be considered when assessing the overall impact of N2 fixation, since algal biomass exhibited high rates of N2 fixation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support of members of the broader project, Walter Dodds, David Graham, Charles Knapp, and their teams. We thank Sarah Castro, Daniel Gutzmer, Brooke Landon, Brandon Litzner, Christopher Rogers, Monica Rueda, Leland Russell, Lisa Witte, and Eyyub Yunus for technical support. Preliminary reports of this work have been presented previously and abstracted (Caton et al. 2004a; Santos-Caton and Schneegurt 2006; Caton and Schneegurt 2007, 2012). An award from Kansas National Science Foundation (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Collaborative Research (EPSCoR) in Ecological Genomics (EPS 0236913) supported this work. Additional student support was from Kansas Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (KINBRE) of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (P20 GM103418) and NSF Graduate STEM Students in K-12 Education (GK-12; DGE 0537844). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of KINBRE, KS NSF EPSCoR, NIGMS, NIH, or NSF.

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  1. Ingrid R. Caton

    Present address: Bio-Rad Laboratories, Vacaville, CA, 95688, USA

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS, 67260, USA

    Ingrid R. Caton, Todd M. Caton & Mark A. Schneegurt

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  1. Ingrid R. Caton
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  2. Todd M. Caton
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Correspondence to Mark A. Schneegurt.

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Communicated by Jorge Membrillo-Hernández.

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203_2018_1475_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Figure S1. Complete dendrogram showing the taxonomic relationships between nifH genes amplified from small prairie streams and contextual nifH gene sequences from GenBank (PDF 634 KB)

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Caton, I.R., Caton, T.M. & Schneegurt, M.A. Nitrogen-fixation activity and the abundance and taxonomy of nifH genes in agricultural, pristine, and urban prairie stream sediments chronically exposed to different levels of nitrogen loading. Arch Microbiol 200, 623–633 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-018-1475-5

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