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Influence of nitrogen fertilization on soil ammonia oxidizer and denitrifier abundance, microbial biomass, and enzyme activities in an alpine meadow

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Abstract

Terrestrial ecosystems are predicted to experience an increasing level of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, which may cause significant shifts in plant community composition and concomitantly stimulate soil acidification. However, little is known concerning the effects of N deposition on belowground microbial communities in alpine grassland ecosystems such as on the Tibetan Plateau. This study examined the responses of soil N-transforming microbes (measured after DNA extraction and quantitative PCR), soil microbial biomass C (SMBC) and N (SMBN), and soil enzyme activities to different forms (NH4 +-N, NO3 −-N, and NH4NO3-N) and rates (1.5 and 7.5 g N m−2 year−1, denoted as low and high N, respectively) of N fertilization (addition) in two successive plant growing seasons. The N rate, not N form, influenced the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). High N addition significantly increased ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance which differed across different N form treatments. Nitrogen addition had no significant impact on the abundance of soil denitrifiers. The SMBC and SMBN were significantly decreased by high N additions, but no difference was found among different N forms. Despite higher urease activities being detected in the late plant growing season, the activities of invertase and alkaline phosphomonoesterase stayed unchanged irrespective of the different N amendments and plant growing season. Significant positive correlations were found between potential nitrification rates and AOB abundances. These results highlight that AOB seemed to respond more sensitively to different N fertilization and might have prominent roles in soil N cycling processes in this Tibetan Plateau alpine meadow than AOA.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Ian C. Anderson, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney for the helpful comments and English improvements. We also appreciate the editor and anonymous referees for their invaluable suggestions and constructive comments. This study was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41001149, 31070434, and 31270503). Y.Z. received a fellowship as a visiting scholar from the China Scholarship Council (no. 2011491255).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiao-Fang Tian, Qiong Ding, Yong Zheng & Liang-Dong Guo

  2. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Hang-Wei Hu & Yong Zheng

  3. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Ming-Hua Song & Xing-Liang Xu

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  1. Xiao-Fang Tian
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Correspondence to Yong Zheng.

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Tian, XF., Hu, HW., Ding, Q. et al. Influence of nitrogen fertilization on soil ammonia oxidizer and denitrifier abundance, microbial biomass, and enzyme activities in an alpine meadow. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 703–713 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-013-0889-0

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