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Do ammonia-oxidizing archaea respond to soil Cu contamination similarly asammonia-oxidizing bacteria?

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Abstract

Inhibitory experiments were conducted to investigate the responses of the population sizes of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and the potential nitrification rates (PNRs) to Cu contamination in four Chinese soils. PNR was determined using a substrate-induced nitrification (SIN) assay, and the population size of the nitrifiers represented by amoA gene abundances was quantified using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay. Both population size and PNR of the ammonia oxidizers reduced considerably at high Cu concentrations in all the soils. Bacterial amoA gene abundance was reduced by from 107-fold (Hailun soil) to more than 232-fold (Hangzhou soil) at the highest Cu concentrations (2,400 mg kg−1 Cu for Hailun, Langfang and Guangzhou soils and 1,600 mg kg−1 Cu for Hangzhou soil), while reduction in archaeal amoA gene abundance was from 10-fold (Langfang soil) to 89-fold (Hangzhou soil). AOA seemed more tolerant to Cu contamination than AOB. Nitrification rates were inhibited by more than 50% at a Cu concentration of 600 mg kg−1, and by more than 90% at the highest Cu concentrations in all soils. These results indicated that both AOA and AOB can be inhibited by toxic metals, highlighting the need to consider the role of AOA in nitrification in soils.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX1-YW-0603) and the International Copper Association and the Nickel Producers Environmental Research Association. The authors also thank Professors Jim Prosser and Ian J Alexander for critical comments on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361003, China

    Xiaofang Li & Yong-Guan Zhu

  2. Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Xiaofang Li, Yong-Guan Zhu, Meimei Chen, Xueping Chen & Min Qiao

  3. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Timothy R. Cavagnaro

  4. College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530001, China

    Jinwei Sun

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  1. Xiaofang Li
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  2. Yong-Guan Zhu
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Correspondence to Yong-Guan Zhu.

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Li, X., Zhu, YG., Cavagnaro, T.R. et al. Do ammonia-oxidizing archaea respond to soil Cu contamination similarly asammonia-oxidizing bacteria?. Plant Soil 324, 209–217 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-9947-7

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