Dataset Information

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO₂, but strongly affected by drought.

ABSTRACT: Nitrification is a fundamental process in terrestrial nitrogen cycling. However, detailed information on how climate change affects the structure of nitrifier communities is lacking, specifically from experiments in which multiple climate change factors are manipulated simultaneously. Consequently, our ability to predict how soil nitrogen (N) cycling will change in a future climate is limited. We conducted a field experiment in a managed grassland and simultaneously tested the effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂, temperature, and drought on the abundance of active ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA), comammox (CMX) Nitrospira, and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), and on gross mineralization and nitrification rates. We found that N transformation processes, as well as gene and transcript abundances, and nitrifier community composition were remarkably resistant to individual and interactive effects of elevated CO₂ and temperature. During drought however, process rates were increased or at least maintained. At the same time, the abundance of active AOB increased probably due to higher NH₄⁺ availability. Both, AOA and comammox Nitrospira decreased in response to drought and the active community composition of AOA and NOB was also significantly affected. In summary, our findings suggest that warming and elevated CO₂ have only minor effects on nitrifier communities and soil biogeochemical variables in managed grasslands, whereas drought favors AOB and increases nitrification rates. This highlights the overriding importance of drought as a global change driver impacting on soil microbial community structure and its consequences for N cycling.

SUBMITTER: Seneca J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7784676 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO<sub>2</sub>, but strongly affected by drought.

Séneca Joana J Pjevac Petra P Canarini Alberto A Herbold Craig W CW Zioutis Christos C Dietrich Marlies M Simon Eva E Prommer Judith J Bahn Michael M Pötsch Erich M EM Wagner Michael M Wanek Wolfgang W Richter Andreas A

The ISME journal 20200807 12

Nitrification is a fundamental process in terrestrial nitrogen cycling. However, detailed information on how climate change affects the structure of nitrifier communities is lacking, specifically from experiments in which multiple climate change factors are manipulated simultaneously. Consequently, our ability to predict how soil nitrogen (N) cycling will change in a future climate is limited. We conducted a field experiment in a managed grassland and simultaneously tested the effects of elevate ...[more]

PMID: 32770119

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Dataset Information

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO₂, but strongly affected by drought.

Publications

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO<sub>2</sub>, but strongly affected by drought.

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Dataset Information

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO2, but strongly affected by drought.

Publications

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO<sub>2</sub>, but strongly affected by drought.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets

Composition and activity of nitrifier communities in soil are unresponsive to elevated temperature and CO₂, but strongly affected by drought.