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Effects of nitrogen deposition rates and frequencies on the abundance of soil nitrogen-related functional genes in temperate grassland of northern China

  • Soils, Sec 5 • Soil and Landscape Ecology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Microbial processes driving nitrogen (N) cycling are hot topics in terms of increasing N deposition. Abundances of N-related functional genes (NFG) can be most responsive to N deposition and commonly used to represent N transformation rates. However, empirically simulated N deposition has been exclusively conducted through large and infrequent N fertilization, which may have caused contrasting effects on NFGs. Therefore, experiments with small and frequent N additions closed to natural deposition are necessary.

Materials and methods

Independently manipulated N addition rates (i.e., 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 50 g N m−2 year−1) and two frequencies (2 times per year addition as conventional large and infrequent N fertilization (2 N), and 12 times per year addition simulating small and frequent N deposition (12 N), respectively) were conducted in a long-term field experiment of a semiarid grassland in northern China. Quantification analysis using real-time PCR were carried out for NFGs, including nifH for N fixation, chiA for N mineralization, archaeal (AOA) and bacterial (AOB) amoA for nitrification, and narG, nirS, nirK, and nosZ for denitrification.

Results and discussion

NFG abundances showed distinct sensitivities to N addition rates. The nifH, AOA-amoA, nirS, and nosZ gene abundances increased due to improved available N at low N rates, but suppressed by salt toxicity and acidification at high N rates. Large changes of chiA and AOB-amoA gene abundances highlighted their great sensitivities to the N enrichment. The abundance of AOB-amoA was more sensitive to N addition than AOA-amoA, but AOA-amoA dominated in absolute numbers and they predominated the ammonia-oxidation under different conditions. The N addition frequencies caused significant lower gene abundances of nifH, nirS, and nosZ under the 2-N frequency due to stronger suppression of acidification and salt toxicity and resulted in significant higher AOB-amoA gene abundances in response to higher N availability under the 2-N frequency.

Conclusions

The NFGs abundances responded to N addition rates distinctly, highlighting that the driven processes involved in N cycling were altered by the N addition rates. The different effects of two N addition frequencies on NFG abundances demonstrated that conventional large and infrequent N fertilization cannot represent N deposition, and small and frequent N addition should be employed to project the effects of N deposition on microbial functional groups as well as on N transformations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jianjun Chen, Jian Xu, Shuchao Wang, and Dongsheng Miao, for the assistance in sampling and sample measurement. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB15010401 and XDB15010403) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170433 and 31307337).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, People’s Republic of China

    Qiushi Ning, Qian Gu, Jianhui Huang & Xingguo Han

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Qiushi Ning & Qian Gu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110164, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaotao Lv, Junjie Yang, Ximei Zhang & Xingguo Han

  4. Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Swift Current, Saskatchewan, S9H 3X2, 1030, Canada

    Hong Wang

  5. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Centre for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, People’s Republic of China

    Jupei Shen & Jizheng He

  6. Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia

    Qiushi Ning, Jizheng He & Zhihong Xu

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  1. Qiushi Ning
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  2. Qian Gu
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Correspondence to Zhihong Xu or Xingguo Han.

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Ning, Q., Gu, Q., Shen, J. et al. Effects of nitrogen deposition rates and frequencies on the abundance of soil nitrogen-related functional genes in temperate grassland of northern China. J Soils Sediments 15, 694–704 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-015-1061-2

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