Anammox microbial community and activity changes in response to water and dissolved oxygen managements in a paddy-wheat soil of Southern China

Abstract

Anammox are unusual members of the microbial community contributing to N losses via anaerobic ammonium oxidation. Anammox use nitrite as a substrate and produce hydrazine as an intermediate product. Up to date, the effects of dissolved oxygen and moisture dynamics on anammox potential and microbial community in agricultural soils were poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the interaction of dissolved oxygen and moisture contents as factors affecting the soil anammox process. The experiment had four fertilization treatments i.e. Control (CK), Chemical fertilizer (CF), Pig composted manure plus chemical fertilizer (PMCF), and Straw returned to soil plus chemical fertilizer (SRCF) with different water contents, 70%-FC, Alternate wetting and drying (AWD), Flooding I (D.O 5.8 mg L−1), and Flooding II (D.O 2.6 mg L−1). 15N-isotopic tracer technique was used to evaluate the anammox and denitrification rates. The results showed that the anammox rate ranged from the lowest 0.56 nmol N2·g−1·h−1 in CF (with 70% FC water) to the highest rate of 1.47 nmol N2·g−1·h−1 in SRCF (with flooding II). In water treatments, the average lowest and highest anammox rates were in the 70% FC (0.61 nmol N2·g−1·h−1) and Flooding II (1.14 nmol N2·g−1·h−1), respectively. Moreover, under soil treatments, the minimum average anammox rate was found in the PMCF (0.76 nmol N2·g−1·h−1) and maximum in the SRCF (1.01 nmol N2·g−1·h−1). Interestingly, anammox genes copy numbers were highest in alternate wetting and drying conditions under all fertilizer treatments rather than in continuous flooding. The phylogenetic analysis showed that Ca. Brocadia was dominating while some of Ca. Jettenia was also present. In conclusion, alternate wetting and drying could increase the number of anammox bacteria and microbial diversity.