Activity and Composition of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria in an Aquic Brown Soil as Influenced by Land Use and Fertilization

Abstract

The effects of long-term (19 years) different land use and fertilization on activity and composition of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in an aquic brown soil were investigated in a field experiment in Liaoning Province, China. The 19-year experiment conducted from 1990 to 2008 involved seven treatments designed: cropping rotation of soybean-corn-corn with no fertilizer (control, CK), recycled manure (RM), fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) (NPK), NPK+RM, and no-crop bare land, mowed fallow, and non-mowed fallow. The results showed that the potential nitrification rates of the RM, NPK+RM, mowed fallow, and non-mowed fallow treatments were significantly higher ( P < 0.05) than those of the CK and NPK treatments, indicating that the long-term applications of recycled manure and return of plant residues both significantly increased the activity of AOB. Although the application of NPK did not enhance soil potential nitrification because of decreased pH, available K had an important effect on potential nitrification. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprint profiles showed that no-crop treatments had an increase in the diversity of the AOB community compared to the CK, RM, and NPK treatments, implying that agricultural practices, especially tillage, had an adverse effect on the soil AOB community. The NPK+RM treatment had the most diverse DGGE patterns possibly because of the increased available P in this treatment. A phylogenetic analysis showed that most of the DGGE bands derived belonged to Nitrosospira cluster 3, not Nitrosospira cluster 2. These demonstrated that different land use and fertilization significantly influenced the activity and composition of the AOB community by altering the soil properties, mainly including pH, total C, available K, and available P.