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Plant diversity influenced gross nitrogen mineralization, microbial ammonium consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in a grassland experiment.

ABSTRACT: Gross rates of nitrogen (N) turnover inform about the total N release and consumption. We investigated how plant diversity affects gross N mineralization, microbial ammonium (NH₄⁺) consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in grasslands via isotopic pool dilution. The field experiment included 74 plots with 1-16 plant species and 1-4 plant functional groups (legumes, grasses, tall herbs, small herbs). We determined soil pH, shoot height, root, shoot and microbial biomass, and C and N concentrations in soil, microbial biomass, roots and shoots. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that increasing plant species richness significantly decreased gross N mineralization and microbial NH₄⁺ consumption rates via increased root C:N ratios. Root C:N ratios increased because of the replacement of legumes (low C:N ratios) by small herbs (high C:N ratios) and an increasing shoot height, which was positively related with root C:N ratios, with increasing species richness. However, in our SEM remained an unexplained direct negative path from species richness to both N turnover rates. The presence of legumes increased gross N mineralization, microbial NH₄⁺ consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization rates likely because of improved N supply by N₂ fixation. The positive effect of small herbs on microbial NH₄⁺ consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization could be attributed to their increased rhizodeposition, stimulating microbial growth. Our results demonstrate that increasing root C:N ratios with increasing species richness slow down the N cycle but also that there must be additional, still unidentified processes behind the species richness effect potentially including changed microbial community composition.

SUBMITTER: Lama S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7406533 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Plant diversity influenced gross nitrogen mineralization, microbial ammonium consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in a grassland experiment.

Lama Soni S Velescu Andre A Leimer Sophia S Weigelt Alexandra A Chen Hongmei H Eisenhauer Nico N Scheu Stefan S Oelmann Yvonne Y Wilcke Wolfgang W

Oecologia 20200731 3

Gross rates of nitrogen (N) turnover inform about the total N release and consumption. We investigated how plant diversity affects gross N mineralization, microbial ammonium (NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>) consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in grasslands via isotopic pool dilution. The field experiment included 74 plots with 1-16 plant species and 1-4 plant functional groups (legumes, grasses, tall herbs, small herbs). We determined soil pH, shoot height, root, shoot and microbial bio ...[more]

PMID: 32737568

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Project description:The 15N isotope pool dilution (IPD) technique is the only available method for measuring gross ammonium (NH4 +) production and consumption rates. Rapid consumption of the added 15N-NH4 + tracer is commonly observed, but the processes responsible for this consumption are not well understood. The primary objectives of this study were to determine the relative roles of biotic and abiotic processes in 15N-NH4 + sconsumption and to investigate the validity of one of the main assumptions of IPD experiments, i.e., that no reflux of the consumed 15N tracer occurs during the course of the experiments. We added a 15N-NH4 + tracer to live and sterile (autoclaved) soil using mineral topsoil from a beech forest and a grassland in Austria that differed in NH4 + concentrations and NH4 + consumption kinetics. We quantified both biotic tracer consumption (i.e. changes in the concentrations and 15N enrichments of NH4 +, dissolved organic N (DON), NO3 - and the microbial N pool) and abiotic tracer consumption (i.e., fixation by clay and/or humic substances). We achieved full recovery of the 15N tracer in both soils over the course of the 48 h incubation. For the forest soil, we found no rapid consumption of the 15N tracer, and the majority of tracer (78%) remained unconsumed at the end of the incubation period. In contrast, the grassland soil showed rapid 15N-NH4 + consumption immediately after tracer addition, which was largely due to both abiotic fixation (24%) and biotic processes, largely uptake by soil microbes (10%) and nitrification (13%). We found no evidence for reflux of 15N-NH4 + over the 48 h incubation period in either soil. Our study therefore shows that 15N tracer reflux during IPD experiments is negligible for incubation times of up to 48 h, even when rapid NH4 + consumption occurs. Such experiments are thus robust to the assumption that immobilized labeled N is not re-mobilized during the experimental period and does not impact calculations of gross N mineralization.

Project description:Microbial nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is the efficiency by which microbes allocate organic N acquired to biomass formation relative to the N in excess of microbial demand released through N mineralization. Microbial NUE thus is critical to estimate the capacity of soil microbes to retain N in soils and thereby affects inorganic N availability to plants and ecosystem N losses. However, how soil temperature and soil moisture/O2 affect microbial NUE to date is not clear. Therefore, two independent incubation experiments were conducted with soils from three land uses (cropland, grassland and forest) on two bedrocks (silicate and limestone). Soils were exposed to 5, 15 and 25 °C overnight at 60% water holding capacity (WHC) or acclimated to 30 and 60% WHC at 21% O2 and to 90% WHC at 1% O2 over one week at 20 °C. Microbial NUE was measured as microbial growth over microbial organic N uptake (the sum of growth N demand and gross N mineralization). Microbial NUE responded positively to temperature increases with Q10 values ranging from 1.30 ± 0.11 to 2.48 ± 0.67. This was due to exponentially increasing microbial growth rates with incubation temperature while gross N mineralization rates were relatively insensitive to temperature increases (Q10 values 0.66 ± 0.30 to 1.63 ± 0.15). Under oxic conditions (21% O2), microbial NUE as well as gross N mineralization were not stimulated by the increase in soil moisture from 30 to 60% WHC. Under suboxic conditions (90% WHC and 1% O2), microbial NUE markedly declined as microbial growth rates were strongly negatively affected due to increasing microbial energy limitation. In contrast, gross N mineralization rates increased strongly as organic N uptake became in excess of microbial growth N demand. Therefore, in the moisture/O2 experiment microbial NUE was mainly regulated by the shift in O2 status (to suboxic conditions) and less affected by increasing water availability per se. These temperature and moisture/O2 effects on microbial organic N metabolism were consistent across the soils differing in bedrock and land use. Overall it has been demonstrated that microbial NUE was controlled by microbial growth, and that NUE controlled gross N mineralization as an overflow metabolism when energy (C) became limiting or N in excess in soils. This study thereby greatly contributes to the understanding of short-term environmental responses of microbial community N metabolism and the regulation of microbial organic-inorganic N transformations in soils.

Dataset Information

Plant diversity influenced gross nitrogen mineralization, microbial ammonium consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in a grassland experiment.

Publications

Plant diversity influenced gross nitrogen mineralization, microbial ammonium consumption and gross inorganic N immobilization in a grassland experiment.

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