Abstract
Background and aims
Microorganisms play a vital role in regulating soil phosphorus (P) dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we investigated the response of soil microbial P cycling potential traits to nitrogen (N) addition via metagenomics and the relationship between microbial potentials and soil P dynamics.
Methods
Topsoil (0–10 cm) samples were collected from experimental soil that had been maintained for 3 years with low and high level of N addition in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Soil microbial functional genes and P fractions were determined.
Results
The soil available P and microbial biomass P were significantly affected by N inputs and significantly associated with soil properties (including soil pH, alkaline phosphatase activity, and soil total N and NO3−-N contents). Meanwhile, high N input decreased the relative abundance of the pstS gene, and low N input reduced the relative abundances of phoB, ugpQ and C-P lyase genes. We further found that the pstS gene was a determinant of soil microbial biomass P and significantly correlated with soil pH. Moreover, Alphaproteobacteria with C-P lyase and Actinobacteria related to alkaline phosphatases and phosphate-specific transport were the most abundant taxa but not affected by N input.
Conclusions
Short-term high N input could alter soil P dynamics and microbial functional genes. Although there were relationships between the pstS gene, microbial biomass P and soil pH, the microbial functional gene abundance was less important than soil properties in regulating soil P dynamics.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Code availability
The authors make sure that all software application support their published claims and comply with field standards.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31971746), The Innovation Platform Construction Project of Qinghai Province of China (Grant No. 2017-ZJ-Y20), and Platform of Adaptive Management on Alpine Grassland-livestock System (Grant No. 2020-ZJ-T07).
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31971746), The Innovation Platform Construction Project of Qinghai Province of China (Grant No. 2017-ZJ-Y20), and Platform of Adaptive Management on Alpine Grassland-livestock System (Grant No. 2020-ZJ-T07).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Bing Han and Jingjing Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Bing Han and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Han, B., Li, J., Liu, K. et al. Variations in soil properties rather than functional gene abundances dominate soil phosphorus dynamics under short-term nitrogen input. Plant Soil 469, 227–241 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05143-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05143-0