Abstract
Transition of populations from rural to urban living causes landscape changes and alters the functionality of soil ecosystems. It is unclear how this urbanization disturbs the microbial ecology of soils and how the disruption influences nitrogen cycling. In this study, microbial communities in turfgrass-grown soils from urban and suburban areas around Xiamen City were compared to microbial communities in the soils from rural farmlands. The potential N2O emissions, potential denitrification activity, and abundances of denitrifiers were higher in the rural farmland soils compared with the turfgrass soils. Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) were more abundant than ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in turfgrass soils. Within turfgrass soils, the potential nitrification activities and AOA abundances were higher in the urban than in the suburban soils. These results indicate a more pivotal role of AOA in nitrification, especially in urban soils. Microbial community composition was distinctly grouped along urbanization categories (urban, suburban, and rural) classified according to the population density, which can in part be attributed to the differences in soil properties. These observed changes could potentially have a broader impact on soil nutrient availability and greenhouse gas emissions.
Highlights
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The soil moisture, soil organic matter (SOM), total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate concentration were significantly higher in farmland soils compared to turfgrass soils, while pH, C/N ratio, nitrite, and ammonium concentrations were higher in the turfgrass (Fig. 1)
The results demonstrated significant differences in potential activities and abundances of microbial communities involved in nitrogen cycling
Summary
Urban turfgrass ecosystems are similar to wheat systems as they are both frequently fertilized, watered, and under oxic conditions It is hypothesized based on these similarities that the major metabolic route of N2O emissions from urban turfgrass soils will be through nitrification. Few studies have focused on the microbial communities in urban soils in China and little is known about how soil microbial communities respond to urbanization To address this question, we selected Xiamen City as a test case because of the rapid urbanization of this area in recent years. In addition to soil properties, we investigated potential nitrification and denitrification activities, the corresponding nitrifying and denitrifying gene abundances, and overall microbial community composition in soils with different urbanization categories (urban/suburban/rural) classified according to the population density. We hypothesized that land use and urbanization have a significant impact on microbial community composition and on nitrifying and denitrifying processes
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