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Patterns and drivers of soil net nitrogen mineralization and its temperature sensitivity across eastern China

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Abstract

Background and Aims

Soil net nitrogen mineralization (Nmin) rate and its temperature sensitivity (Q10) are critical parameters for predicting nitrogen availability under global warming. However, the controlling factors of the net Nmin rate and its Q10 at the regional scale remain highly uncertain, especially in different ecosystem types.

Methods

An incubation experiment at three different temperatures was conducted to measure the net Nmin rate and to calculate its Q10. High-throughput sequencing was applied to explore the microbial community diversity and composition.

Results

Results showed that the overall net Nmin rate was highest in paddy fields, followed by forest and dryland fields, whereas its Q10 was not different among ecosystems. Structural equation models revealed that the net Nmin rate was mainly affected by soil properties in dryland habitats, whereas it was mainly influenced by soil microbial communities and mean annual temperature (MAT) in paddy habitats. In forest habitats, the net Nmin rate was mainly affected by bacterial communities rather than fungal communities. The Q10 of net Nmin was close to 2.0, indicating that the net Nmin rate is sensitive to climatic warming. The Q10 was impacted by the bacterial community composition in dryland soils, whereas it was influenced by soil properties and bacterial diversity in paddy and forest soils.

Conclusion

This study provides a novel quantification on the contribution of soil microbial diversity and community composition to soil net Nmin process in three ecosystem types, with implications for microbial-mediated N mineralization process under climatic change scenarios.

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Data availability

The raw sequence data have been deposited in NCBI under the BioProject ID of PRJNA 825,244 for bacteria and PRJNA 825,248 for fungi, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFE0105600) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42020104003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Xiang Li, Achen Wang, Daqing Huang, Hang Qian, Xuesong Luo, Wenli Chen & Qiaoyun Huang

  2. Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation (Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Xuesong Luo & Qiaoyun Huang

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  1. Xiang Li
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  2. Achen Wang
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  3. Daqing Huang
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  4. Hang Qian
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  6. Wenli Chen
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Contributions

Xiang Li: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Visualization, Software, Writing-original draft. Achen Wang: Methodology. Daqing Huang: Methodology. Hang Qian: Methodology. Xuesong Luo: Conceptualization and Investigation. Wenli Chen: Resources, Validation, Writing-review and editing, Supervision, Data curation. Qiaoyun Huang: Resources, Validation, Writing-review and editing, Supervision, Data curation.

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Correspondence to Wenli Chen.

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Li, X., Wang, A., Huang, D. et al. Patterns and drivers of soil net nitrogen mineralization and its temperature sensitivity across eastern China. Plant Soil 485, 475–488 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05843-1

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