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Differential Resilience of Soil Microbes and Ecosystem Functions Following Cessation of Long-Term Fertilization

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) from anthropogenic sources has dramatically increased in terrestrial ecosystems globally. Although belowground microbial processes and events that release N into the atmosphere, such as fire, could support ecosystem resilience to eutrophication, little is known about how these factors might affect N loss following chronic fertilization, thus promoting ecosystem recovery. We studied how N pools, N-cycling potential rates and their affiliated microbial populations, and microbial community composition responded to the factorial effects of cessation of 30 years of chronic N fertilization and annual burning at a tallgrass prairie. Soil N availability in previously fertilized plots recovered by 86% (using never-fertilized control plots as a 100% recovery reference), while plant and microbial biomass did not change. Nitrification potential recovered (80%), and denitrification potential partially recovered (50%), in previously fertilized plots. There were differential responses among key groups of nitrifiers (archaea vs. bacteria) and denitrifiers (nosZ clade I vs. clade II from Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans) to long-term N fertilization and cessation despite the whole microbial community composition not shifting significantly after fertilization ceased. Also, N-cycling potentials were consistently higher in unburned prairie. Together, results suggest that fire is a prominent mechanism for ecosystem N removal in annually burned prairie, while N-cycling microbes will have an important role in the absence of fire; however, the recovery to pre-fertilized condition, with or without fire, will take longer than 1 year. Overall, differential resilience of biotic populations and processes can potentially shape different outcomes of soil N loss and tallgrass prairie ecosystem recovery from long-term N fertilization.

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Data Availability

Data are available at http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge our neighbors, the Kaw Nation, whose ancestors’ stewardship of the land that Konza Prairie Biological Station sits on has benefitted past and present ecological research. We thank the personnel at Konza Prairie Biological Station and the Konza Prairie LTER program for maintaining the Belowground Plot Experiment since 1986; Dr. Walter Dodds for access to the gas chromatograph; Dr. Alina Akhunova at the Kansas State Integrated Genomics Facility for sequencing support; Dr. Michael Sadowsky for supplying the Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110; Dr. John Blair for feedback on this manuscript; Jordyn Fales and Jessica Stanford for fieldwork support; and the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their constructive feedback. This is publication ### from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Funding

This work was funded by Kansas State University startup funds to LHZ and the Konza Prairie LTER program (NSF DEB-1440484).

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  1. Janaye Hanschu

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 2041 Haworth Hall, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, USA

  2. LHZ conceived the study; MAN, PM, and JH collected the data; MAN analyzed the data. MAN wrote the manuscript, with the other authors contributing to revisions.

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  1. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, 116 Ackert Hall, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506, USA

    Matthew A. Nieland, Priscilla Moley, Janaye Hanschu & Lydia H. Zeglin

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  1. Matthew A. Nieland
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Nieland, M.A., Moley, P., Hanschu, J. et al. Differential Resilience of Soil Microbes and Ecosystem Functions Following Cessation of Long-Term Fertilization. Ecosystems 24, 2042–2060 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-021-00633-9

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