Abstract
Aims
Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) have important roles in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. Nevertheless, the responses of microbial ecological functions involving C cycling in saline-sodic soils to N and P are barely known, particularly at the functional gene level.
Methods
The influence of N and P addition on C functional genes in saline-sodic soils was explored using a pot experiment. Eight treatments were conducted, namely: a control (CK), three N addition levels (NL, NM, and NH), three P addition levels (PL, PM, and PH), and combined N and P addition (NP).
Results
Results revealed that the total abundance of C functional genes was enhanced by the addition of N and P, promoting C fixation, degradation, and CH4 metabolism. The total gene abundance was the highest in NL among the three N addition treatments; however, the highest abundance was observed in PH among the three P addition treatments. Compared to CK, all treatments exerted greater effects on the abundance of genes related to recalcitrant C decomposition than on labile C decomposition. This was because increment in relative abundance of oligotrophic taxa was greater than that of copiotrophic taxa after the addition of N and P. Partial least squares path modeling analysis revealed that N and P addition regulated gene abundance by altering DOC, microbial diversity, and ESP, thereby directly influencing C mineralization.
Conclusions
Our results highlight that N and P stimulate the abundance of C functional genes via plant biomass and soil property traits in saline-sodic soils.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by “Double First-Class” project of the Ministry of Education of China (2022 AC019), National Natural Science Foundation of China (42007076), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2020QD116).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Xuejun Du, Yanning Ge, Yun Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xuejun Du. Hao Hu, Yiying Zhang, Ziye Yang and Yuling Song revised the manuscript. Xueqin Ren, Shuwen Hu and Haojie Feng contributed substantially to the study design and supervised the field and laboratory personnel. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Du, X., Ge, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Responses of soil carbon cycling microbial functional genes to nitrogen and phosphorus addition in saline-sodic soils. Plant Soil 490, 261–277 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06070-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06070-y