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Quantitative Responses of Active Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria to the Biological and Abiotic Factors Across Functional gene Distribution in Coastal Wetlands

  • Wetland Microbiology
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Abstract

The activities of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in the coastal wetlands play important roles in global nitrogen cycle. However, the driving factors of activities of AOA and AOB are still unclear. We collected 62 soil/sediment samples from coastal wetlands of the Bohai area of China to assess the potential activity of AOA (PAOA) and AOB (PAOB) using specific inhibitors. At last, we introduced the structural equation modeling (SEM) to infer direct and indirect effects of variables on potential activities. The results indicated that the change in AOA-amoA gene abundance may be more independent, while AOB-amoA was closely associated with the change in abundance of amx and denitrifier. PAOA was mainly defined by AOA-amoA abundance and partially influenced by the norA gene, suggesting coupling of archaeal ammonia oxidation with nitrite oxidation. PAOB was significantly defined by the abundance of amx and denitrifier, indirectly mediated by AOB-amoA. The activity of AOA seemed to be more independent of other microbial activities, while the activity of AOB varied closely with fluctuations of other microbial species. PAOA was mediated directly by the C/N ratio and indirectly by nitrite concentration and TOC value, while PAOB was mediated directly by ammonium concentration and TOC value and indirectly by C/N ratio. The activity of AOB may be determined by several other functional gene groups and had little correlation with AOB abundance while the activity of AOA was mostly controlled by itself.

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Acknowledgements

The National Key Research and Development Project of China (No.2021YFB2600104 and No.2019YFC0409202) and the Key Projects of the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. U22A20557), provided support for this study.

Funding

This research was funded by The National Key Research and Development Project of China (2021YFB2600104 and No.2019YFC0409202) and the Key Projects of the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. U22A20557).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences, Department of Environmental Engineering, Ministry of Education, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China

    Xianfang Zhu, Chen Wang, Shuangyu Tang & Guodong Ji

  2. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of All Material Fluxes in River Ecosystems Beijing, Department of Environmental Engineering, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China

    Xianfang Zhu, Chen Wang, Shuangyu Tang & Guodong Ji

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  1. Xianfang Zhu
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C Wang Collected samples. C Wang, XF Zhu and SY Tang completed the determination and data analysis. XF Zhu and C Wang wrote the manuscript. GD Ji designed primary research.

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Correspondence to Guodong Ji.

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Zhu, X., Wang, C., Tang, S. et al. Quantitative Responses of Active Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria to the Biological and Abiotic Factors Across Functional gene Distribution in Coastal Wetlands. Wetlands 43, 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01650-7

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