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Daily and seasonal changes in soil amino acid composition in a semiarid grassland exposed to elevated CO2 and warming

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Abstract

Soil amino acids are often an important source of nitrogen (N) for plants, and anticipated global changes, including climate warming and rising atmospheric CO2 levels, have the potential to alter plant and microbial production and consumption of this N source in soils. We determined soil amino acid composition over a 1-year period at diurnal and seasonal time scales in a multi-factor global change experiment with elevated CO2 and warming in native semiarid grassland. Soil amino acids were collected in April, May and June of 2011 and April 2012 using a soil water perfusion and extraction method that minimized soil disturbance. This was a particular advantage when taking diurnal measurements. The extracts were analyzed by ultra performance liquid chromatography. We detected 16 different soil amino acids throughout the study, and glutamine/glutamate (glu-x), arginine, serine and asparagine/aspartate (asp-x) were consistently at highest relative concentrations, comprising 3–41, 6–20, 2–22 and 7–24 % of total amino acids, respectively. No direct effects of experimental warming or elevated CO2 on soil amino acid composition were observed. However, the relative abundance of individual soil amino acids shifted diurnally and seasonally with changes in soil temperature and soil moisture. Glu-x and arginine increased and serine decreased with higher temperature, while asp-x and serine increased and arginine decreased with higher moisture. Overall, the relative abundances of soil amino acids responded more strongly to both diurnal and seasonal changes in temperature and soil moisture than to elevated atmospheric CO2 and experimental warming.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Dan Lecain, David Smith and Erik Hardy with the USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit for providing air and soil moisture and temperature data and for building and maintaining the PHACE project, Chandelle MacDonald and Erik A. Hobbie for internal manuscript review, David E. Legg for SAS consultation and David J. Perry and Justin Jones for UPLC consultation. This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Climate Change, Soils and Emissions Program, USDA-CSREES Soil Processes Program (#2008-35107-18655), US Department of Energy Office of Science (BER), through the Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program (#DE-SC0006973) and the Western Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research, and by the National Science Foundation (DEB#1021559). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Ecosystem Science and Management and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Janet Chen & David G. Williams

  2. Department of Botany and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA

    Tamara J. Zelikova & Elise Pendall

  3. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Elise Pendall

  4. USDA Agricultural Research Service, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    Jack A. Morgan

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  1. Janet Chen
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  2. Tamara J. Zelikova
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Correspondence to Janet Chen.

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Chen, J., Zelikova, T.J., Pendall, E. et al. Daily and seasonal changes in soil amino acid composition in a semiarid grassland exposed to elevated CO2 and warming. Biogeochemistry 123, 135–146 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-014-0057-0

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