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Impacts of urea N addition on soil microbial community in a semi-arid temperate steppe in northern China

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) addition has been well documented to decrease plant biodiversity across various terrestrial ecosystems. However, such generalizations about the impacts of N addition on soil microbial communities are lacking. This study was conducted to examine the impacts of N addition (urea-N fertilizer) on soil microbial communities in a semi-arid temperate steppe in northern China. Soil microbial biomass carbon (C), biomass N (MBN), net N mineralization and nitrification, and bacterial and fungal community level physiological profiles (CLPP) along an N addition gradient (0–64 g N m−2 year−1) were measured. Three years of N addition caused gradual or step increases in soil NH4-N, NO3-N, net N mineralization and nitrification in the early growing season. The reductions in microbial biomass under high N addition levels (32 and 64 g N m−2 year−1) are partly attributed to the deleterious effects of soil pH. An N optimum between 16 and 32 g N m−2 year−1 in microbial biomass and functional diversity exists in the temperate steppe in northern China. Similar N loading thresholds may also occur in other ecosystems, which help to interpret the contrasting observations of microbial responses to N addition.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to K.M. (30590382/C011108). We also wish to extend our thanks to the staff of Duolun Restoration Ecology Experimentation and Demonstration Station. We are also grateful to Shihuan Song for his assistance in sample collection, Peili Song for help in measuring soil microbial biomass, Xiangcheng Mi, Yan Zhu and Guiquan Gong for their help in data analysis, and Yu Liang, Qingmin Pan, Weixing Liu and Chen Lu for their valuable advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.20, NanXinCun, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, China

    Naili Zhang, Shiqiang Wan, Linghao Li, Jie Bi & Keping Ma

  2. College of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China

    Mingming Zhao

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  1. Naili Zhang
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  2. Shiqiang Wan
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  3. Linghao Li
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  4. Jie Bi
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  5. Mingming Zhao
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  6. Keping Ma
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Correspondence to Keping Ma.

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Responsible Editor: Lars Jensen.

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Zhang, N., Wan, S., Li, L. et al. Impacts of urea N addition on soil microbial community in a semi-arid temperate steppe in northern China. Plant Soil 311, 19–28 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-008-9650-0

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