Abstract
Nitrate (NO −3 ) removal in riparian zones bordering agricultural areas occurs via plant uptake, microbial immobilisation and bacterial denitrification. Denitrification is a desirable mechanism for removal because the bacterial conversion of NO −3 to N gases permanently removes NO −3 from the watershed. A field and laboratory study was conducted in riparian soils adjacent to Carroll Creek, Ontario, Canada, to assess the spatial distribution of denitrification relative to microbial community structure and microbial functional diversity. Soil samples were collected in March, June, and August 1997 at varying soil depths and distances from the stream. Denitrification measurements made using the acetylene block technique on intact soil cores were highly variable and did not show any trends with riparian zone location. Microbial community composition and functional diversity were determined using sole carbon source utilization (SCSU) on Biolog® GN microplates. Substrate richness, evenness and diversity (Shannon index) were greatest within the riparian zone and may also have been influenced by a rhizosphere effect. A threshold relationship between denitrification and measures of microbial community structure implied minimum levels of richness, evenness and diversity were required for denitrification.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambus P (1993) Control of denitrification enzyme activity in a streamside soil. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 102: 225–234
Ambus P and Christensen S (1993) Denitrification variability and control in a riparian fen irrigated with agricultural drainage water. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 25: 915–923
Anderson JPE (1987) Handling and storage of soils for pesticide experiments. In: Somerville L and Greaves MP (eds) Pesticide Effects on Soil Microflora, pp 45–60. London, Taylor & Francis
Beare MH, Coleman DC, Crossley DA Jr, Hendrix PF and Odum EP (1995) A hierarchical approach to evaluating the significance of soil biodiversity to biogeochemical cycling. Plant and Soil 170: 5–22
Biolog Inc (1991) Instructions for use of the Biolog GN MicroplateTM. Biolog Inc., Hayward, CA
Bossio DA and Scow KM (1995) Impact of carbon and flooding on the metabolic diversity of microbial communities in soils. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 61: 4043–4050
Breitenbeck GM and Bremner JM (1987) Effects of storing soils at various temps on their capacity for denitrification. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 19: 377–380
Buyer JS and Drinkwater LE (1997) Comparison of substrate utilization assay and fatty acid analysis of soil microbial communities. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 3–13
Campbell CD, Grayston SJ and Hirst DJ (1997) Use of rhizosphere carbon sources in sole carbon source tests to discriminate soil microbial communities. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 33–43
Davidson B (1997) Davidson Environmental Drilling, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, personal communication
Davidsson TE and Leonardson LG (1996) Effects of nitrate and organic carbon additions on denitrification in two artificially flooded soils. Ecological Engineering 7: 139–149
Derry AM, Staddon WJ, Kevan PG and Trevors JT (1999) Functional diversity and community structure of microorganisms in three Arctic soils as determined by sole-carbon-source-utilization. Biodiversity and Conservation (in press)
Duff JH and Triska FJ (1990) Denitrification in sediments from the hyporheic zone adjacent to a small forested stream. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 47: 1140–1147
England LS, Lee H and Trevors JT (1995) Recombinant and wild-type Pseudomonas aereofaciens strains introduced into soil microcosms: effect on decomposition of cellulose and straw. Molecular Ecology 4: 221–230
Entry JA, Donnely PK and Emmingham WH (1994) Microbial mineralization of atrazine and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid in riparian pasture and forest soils. Biology and Fertility of Soils 18: 89–94
Garland JL (1998) Analysis and interpretation of community-level physiological profiles in microbial ecology. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 24: 289–300
Garland JL and Mills AL (1991) Classification and characterization of heterotrophic microbial communities on the basis of patterns of community level sole-carbon-source-utilization. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 57: 2351–2359
Gilliam JW (1994) Riparian wetlands and water quality. Journal of Environmental Quality 23: 896–900
Glimm E, Heuer H, Engelen B, Smalla K and Backhaus H (1997) Statistical comparisons of community catabolic profiles. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 71–81
Griffiths BS, Ritz K and Wheatley RE (1997) Relationship between functional diversity and genetic diversity in complex microbial communities. In: Insam H and Rangger A (eds) Microbial Communities: Functional versus Structural Approaches. Springer Verlag, New York
Groffman PM, Axelrod EA, Lemunyon JL and Sullivan WM (1991) Denitrification in grass and forest vegetated filter strips. Journal of Environmental Quality 20: 671–674
Groffman PM, Gold AJ and Simmons RC (1992) Nitrate dynamics in riparian forests: microbial studies. Journal of Environmental Quality 21: 666–671
Harch BD, Correll RL, Meech W, Kirkby CA and Pankhurst CE (1997) Using the Gini coefficient with Biolog substrate utilisation data to provide an alternative quantitative measure for comparing bacterial soil communities. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 91–100
Haack SK, Garchow H, Klug MJ and Forney LJ (1995) Analysis of factors affecting the accuracy, reproducibility and interpretation of microbial community carbon source utilization patterns. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 61: 1458–1468
Hanson GC, Groffman PM and Gold AJ (1994) Symptoms of nitrogen saturation in a riparian wetland. Ecological Applications 4: 750–756
Haycock NE and Burt TP (1993) The sensitivity of rivers to nitrate leaching: The effectiveness of nearstream land as a nutrient retention zone. In: Allison RJ and Thomas DSG (eds) Landscape Sensitivity. Wiley, London
Hitzl W, Rangger A, Sharma S and Insam H (1997) Separation power of the 95 substrates of the Biolog system determined in various soils. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 22: 167–174
Heuer H and Smalla K (1997) Evaluation of community-level catabolic profiling using Biolog GN microplates to study microbial community changes in potato phyllosphere. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 49–61
Hoffman DW, Matthews BC and Wicklund RE (1963) Soil Survey of Wellington County, Ontario. Report No. 35 of the Ontario Soil Survey. Research Branch, Canada, pp 21–58. Department of Agriculture and the Ontario Agricultural College
Jacobs TC and Gilliam JW (1985) Riparian losses of nitrate from agricultural drainage water. Journal of Environmental Quality 14: 472–478
Jacinthe P-A, Groffman PM, Gold AJ and Mosier A (1998) Patchiness in microbial nitrogen transformations in groundwater in a riparian forest. Journal of Environmental Quality 27: 156–164
Jordan TE, Correll DL and Weller DE (1993) Nutrient interception by a riparian forest receiving inputs from adjacent cropland. Journal of Environmental Quality 22: 467–473
Kennedy AC and Smith KL (1995) Soil microbial diversity and the sustainability of agricultural soils. Plant and Soil 170: 75–86
Knowles R (1982) Denitrification. Microbiological Reviews 46: 43–70
Laine MM, Haarlo H and Jorgensen KS (1997) Microbial functional activity during composting of chlorophenol-contaminated sawmill soil. Journal of Microbiological Methods 30: 21–33
Lamar RT and Dietrich DM (1990) In-situ depletion of pentachlorophenol from contaminated soil by Phanerochaete spp. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 56: 3093–3100
Lowrance R (1992) Groundwater nitrate and denitrification in a coastal plane riparian forest. Journal of Environmental Quality 21: 401–405
Martin TL, Kaushik NK, Trevors JT and Whiteley HR (1999) Review: Denitrification in temperate climate riparian zones. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution (in press)
Muscutt AD, Harris GL, Bailey SW and Davies DB (1993) Buffer zones to improve water quality: a review of their potential use in UK agriculture. Agric Ecosystems Environ 45: 59–77
Murray RE, Feig YS and Tiedje JM (1995) Spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of denitrifying bacteria associated with denitrification activity zones. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 61: 2791–2793
Osborne LL and Kovacic DA (1993) Riparian vegetated buffer strips in water-quality restoration and stream management. Freshwater Biology 29: 243–258
Pankhurst CE, Ophel-Keller K, Doube BM and Gupta VVSR (1996) Biodiversity of soil microbial communities in agricultural systems. Biodiversity and Conservation 5: 197–209
Parkin TB (1987) Soil microsites as a source of denitrification variability. Soil Science Society of America Journal 51: 1194–1199
Parkin TB and Meisinger JJ (1989) Denitrification below the crop rooting zone as influenced by surface tillage. Journal of Environmental Quality 18: 12–16
Prasad R and Power JF (1995) Nitrification inhibitors for agriculture, health, and the environment. Advances in Agronomy 54: 233–281
Salonius PO (1981) Metabolic capabilities of forest soil microbial populations with reduced species diversity. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 13: 1–10
SAS (1990) SAS/STAT User's Guide Version 6. Fourth Edition, Volume 2. Cary NC: SAS Institute Inc., 846 pp
Schnabel RR, Cornish LF, Stout WL and Shaffer JA (1996) Denitrification in a grassed and a wooded, valley and ridge, riparian ecotone. Journal of Environmental Quality 25: 1230–1235
Schnabel RR, Shaffer JA, Stout WL and Cornish LF (1997) Denitrification distributions in four valley and ridge riparian ecosystems. Environmental Management 21: 283–290
Simmons RC, Gold AJ and Groffman PM (1992) Nitrate dynamics in riparian forests: Groundwater studies. Journal of Environmental Quality 21: 656–665
Sorensen J (1997) The rhizosphere as a habitat for soil microorganisms. In: van Elsas JD, Trevors JT and Wellington EMH (eds) Modern Soil Microbiology, pp 21–42. Marcel Dekker, New York
Sotomayer D and Rice CW (1996) Denitrification in soil profiles beneath grassland and cultivated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 60: 1822–1828
Staddon WJ, Duchesne LC, Trevors JT and Colombo CA (1998) Soil microbial diversity and community structure across a climatic gradient in Western Canada. Biodiversity and Conservation 7: 1081–1092
Starr RC and Ingleton RA (1992) A new method for collecting core samples without a drill rig. Ground Water Monitoring Review 12: 91–95
Stotzky G (1997) Soil as an environment for microbial life. In: van Elsas JD, Trevors JT and Wellington EMH (eds) Modern Soil Microbiology, pp 1–19. Marcel Dekker, New York
Tabatabi MA and Bremner JM (1970) Use of the Leco automatic 70-second carbon analyzer for total carbon analysis of soils. Soil Science Society of America, Proceedings 34: 608–610
Tate RL (1995) Soil Microbiology. John Wiley, New York
Tiedje JM (1982) Denitrification. In: Page AL, Miller RH and Keeney DR (eds) Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2. Chemical and Microbiological Properties-2nd Edition, Agronomy Monograph No. 9, pp 1011–1026. American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI
Tiedje JM, Simkins S and Groffman PM (1989) Perspectives on measurement of denitrification in the field including recommended protocols for acetylene based methods. Plant Soil 115: 261–284
Vought LBM, Dahl J, Pedersen CL and Lacoursiere JO (1994) Nutrient retention in riparian ecotones Ambio 23: 342–348
Winding A (1994) Fingerprinting bacterial soil communities using Biolog microtitre plates. In: Ritz K, Dighton J and Giller KE (eds) Beyond the Biomass: Compositional and Functional Analysis of Soil Microbial Communities, pp 85–94. Wiley, Chichester, UK
Zak DR and Grigal DG (1991) Nitrogen mineralization, nitrification and denitrification in upland and wetland ecosystems. Oecologia 88: 189–196
Zak JC, Willig MR, Moorhead DL and Wildman HG (1994) Functional diversity of microbial communities: a quantitative approach. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 26: 1101–1108
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martin, T.L., Trevors, J. & Kaushik, N. Soil microbial diversity, community structure and denitrification in a temperate riparian zone. Biodiversity and Conservation 8, 1057–1078 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008899722286
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008899722286