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Denitrifying bacterial communities display different temporal fluctuation patterns across Dutch agricultural soils

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Abstract

Considering the great agronomic and environmental importance of denitrification, the aim of the present study was to study the temporal and spatial factors controlling the abundance and activity of denitrifying bacterial communities in a range of eight agricultural soils over 2 years. Abundance was quantified by qPCR of the nirS, nirK and nosZ genes, and the potential denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) was estimated. Our data showed a significant temporal variation considerably high for the abundance of nirK-harboring communities, followed by nosZ and nirS communities. Regarding soil parameters, the abundances of nosZ, nirS and nirK were mostly influenced by organic material, pH, and slightly by NO3 −, respectively. Soil texture was the most important factor regulating DEA, which could not be explained by the abundance of denitrifiers. Analyses of general patterns across lands to understand the soil functioning is not an easy task because the multiple factors influencing processes such as denitrification can skew the data. Careful analysis of atypical sites are necessary to classify the soils according to trait similarity and in this way reach a better predictability of the denitrifiers dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the NWO-ERGO Program and was part of a collaborative project with Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. We would like to thank our colleagues Alexander V Semenov and Jolanda Brons, for their help with sampling. NELL thanks to F.R. Beamonte-Barrientos for the advices in the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbial Ecology, Centre for Life Sciences, University of Groningen, P.O. BOX 11103, 9700CC, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Nguyen E. López-Lozano, Michele C. Pereira e Silva, Jan Dirk van Elsas & Joana Falcão Salles

  2. División de Ciencias Ambientales, Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICyT), San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico

    Nguyen E. López-Lozano

  3. Microbial Ecology Centre (UMR 5557 CNRS-Université Lyon 1; USC 1193 INRA), Bat G. Mendel 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Franck Poly & Nadine Guillaumaud

  4. Soil Microbiology Laboratory, Soil Science Department, College of Agriculture “Luiz de Queiroz”, University of Sao Paulo, Av Padua Dias, 11, Piracicaba, São Paulo, CEP 13418-260, Brazil

    Michele C. Pereira e Silva

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  1. Nguyen E. López-Lozano
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López-Lozano, N.E., Pereira e Silva, M.C., Poly, F. et al. Denitrifying bacterial communities display different temporal fluctuation patterns across Dutch agricultural soils. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 110, 1453–1465 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-017-0898-3

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