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The effect of soil moisture on the response by fungi and bacteria to nitrogen additions for N2O production

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Abstract

In addition to bacteria, the contribution of fungi to nitrous oxide (N2O) production has been recognized but the responses of these two broad and unrelated groups of microorganisms to global environmental changes, atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, and precipitation in terms of N2O production are unclear. We studied how these two microbial-mediated N2O production pathways responded to soil moisture conditions and to N addition in an N-limited temperate forest. Soils from a long-term N addition experiment in Changbai Mountain, northeastern China were incubated. Varied concentrations of cycloheximide and streptomycin, both inhibitors of fungal and bacterial activity, were used to determine the contributions of both to N2O production in 66%, 98% and 130% water-filled pore spaces (WFPS). The results showed that N2O production decreased significantly with increasing cycloheximide concentration whereas streptomycin was only inhibiting N2O emissions at 98% and 130% WFPS. The bacterial pathway of N2O production in N-addition (Nadd) soil was significantly more dominant than that in untreated (Namb) soil. The difference in the fungal pathway of N2O production between the soil with nitrogen addition and the untreated soil was not significant. Net N2O emissions increased with increasing soil moisture, especially at 130% WFPS, a completely flooded condition. Bacteria dominated carbon dioxide (CO2) and N2O emissions in Nadd soil and at 130% WFPS regardless of N status, while fungi dominated CO2 and N2O emissions in soil without N addition at 66% and 98% WFPS. The results suggest that flooded soil is an important source of N2O emissions and that bacteria might be better adapted to compete in fertile soils under anoxic conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate AJE for language modification of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Boundary Layer Ecology, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management of Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Applied Ecology, Shenyang, 110000, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Zhang, Junqiang Zheng, Xu Han, Junhui Zhang, Shicong Geng & Shijie Han

  2. Department of Resource and Environmental Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Zhang & Xu Han

  3. Yellow River Floodplain Ecosystems Research Station, Department of Life Sciences, Henan University, Jinming Avenue, Kaifeng, Henan, 475001, People’s Republic of China

    Junqiang Zheng & Shijie Han

  4. Department of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, 110168, People’s Republic of China

    Chengxu Li

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Correspondence to Shijie Han.

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Corresponding editor: Zhu Hong

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This work was supported financially by the Key Research and Development Project from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (2016YFA0600804) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41575153, 41430639, 41673077, 41675150 and 31800413].

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Zhang, L., Zheng, J., Han, X. et al. The effect of soil moisture on the response by fungi and bacteria to nitrogen additions for N2O production. J. For. Res. 32, 2037–2045 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-020-01262-z

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