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Effects of nitrogen application rate and a nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide on methanotroph abundance and methane uptake in a grazed pasture soil

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Abstract

Methane-oxidizing bacteria (methanotrophs) in the soil are a unique group of methylotrophic bacteria that utilize methane (CH4) as their sole source of carbon and energy which limit the flux of methane to the atmosphere from soils and consume atmospheric methane. A field experiment was conducted to determine the effect of nitrogen application rates and the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) on the abundance of methanotrophs and on methane flux in a grazed pasture soil. Nitrogen (N) was applied at four different rates, with urea applied at 50 and 100 kg N ha−1 and animal urine at 300 and 600 kg N ha−1. DCD was applied at 10 kg ha−1. The results showed that both the DNA and selected mRNA copy numbers of the methanotroph pmoA gene were not affected by the application of urea, urine or DCD. The methanotroph DNA and mRNA pmoA gene copy numbers were low in this soil, below 7.13 × 103 g−1 soil and 3.75 × 103 μg−1 RNA, respectively. Daily CH4 flux varied slightly among different treatments during the experimental period, ranging from −12.89 g CH4 ha−1 day−1 to −0.83 g CH4 ha−1 day−1, but no significant treatment effect was found. This study suggests that the application of urea fertilizer, animal urine returns and the use of the nitrification inhibitor DCD do not significantly affect soil methanotroph abundance or daily CH4 fluxes in grazed grassland soils.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries for providing funding in the form of the LEARN Fellowship to Yu Dai. This study is partially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41020114001) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (2013CB956300). We thank Trevor Hendry, Roger Atkinson, Chris Abraham, Jie Lei, Premaratne Manjula, Steve Moore and Carole Barlow of Lincoln University for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Yu Dai & Ji-Zheng He

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yu Dai

  3. Centre for Soil and Environmental Research, Lincoln University, Lincoln, 7674, PO Box 85084, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Hong J. Di & Keith C. Cameron

  4. Environmental Futures Centre, School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Ji-Zheng He

Authors
  1. Yu Dai
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  2. Hong J. Di
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  3. Keith C. Cameron
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  4. Ji-Zheng He
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Correspondence to Hong J. Di or Ji-Zheng He.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Dai, Y., Di, H.J., Cameron, K.C. et al. Effects of nitrogen application rate and a nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide on methanotroph abundance and methane uptake in a grazed pasture soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 8680–8689 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1825-4

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