Abstract
Soil nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes are affected by variations in nitrogen (N) and water inputs. Researchers are concerned about whether differences in environmental and biological factors can explain variations in soil N2O fluxes in response to N and water additions. In June 2017, we conducted an N and water application experiment on a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia, Northeast China, to investigate the impacts of N and water additions upon N2O fluxes and how the soil physicochemical properties, vegetation, and microbes regulate this process. In this study, we collected samples and measured the variations in soil N2O fluxes and physicochemical and biological properties under N and water additions in July and August of 2019 and 2020. The results indicated that N addition significantly decreased soil pH, increased the ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) contents, decreased the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content, and promoted peroxidase (PER) activity, while water addition significantly increased soil pH, soil water content (SWC), and the root-shoot ratio. Soil N2O fluxes significantly increased by 2.2 times under the 2020 N treatment alone. A structural equation model (SEM) showed that the soil N2O fluxes in response to N and water additions were mainly driven by DON in 2019, and pH was the key factor that affected the N2O fluxes in 2020. Our findings suggested that N and water additions altered soil N contents and affected microbial activity by changing pH and plant growth conditions, which in turn regulated soil N2O fluxes.
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The data used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2022YFF1302803) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31770519).
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QD: formal analysis, visualization, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing; YL: conceptualization, funding acquisition, supervision, and writing—review and editing; PH: data curation and investigation; WD: data curation and investigation.
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Dong, Q., Liu, Y., He, P. et al. Belowground Biomass Changed the Regulatory Factors of Soil N2O Funder N and Water Additions in a Temperate Steppe of Inner Mongolia. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 24, 606–617 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01569-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01569-w