Contrasting response of two grassland soils to N addition and moisture levels: N2O emission and functional gene abundance

Abstract

Nitrification and denitrification processes dominate nitrous oxide (N2O) emission in grassland ecosystems, but their relative contribution as well as the abiotic factors are still not well understood. Two grassland soils from Duolun in Inner Mongolia, China, and Canterbury in New Zealand were used to quantitatively compare N2O production and the abundance of bacterial and archaeal amoA, denitrifying nirK and nirS genes in response to N additions (0 and 100 μg NH4 +–N g−1 dry soil) and two soil moisture levels (40 and 80 % water holding capacity) using microcosms. Soil moisture rather than N availability significantly increased the nitrification rate in the Duolun soil but not in the Canterbury soil. Moreover, N addition promoted denitrification enzyme activities in the Canterbury soil but not in the Duolun soil. The abundance of bacterial and archaeal amoA genes significantly increased as soil moisture increased in the Duolun soil, whereas in the Canterbury soil, only the abundance of bacterial amoA gene increased. The increase in N2O flux induced by N addition was significantly greater in the Duolun soil than in the Canterbury soil, suggesting that nitrification may have a dominant role in N2O emission for the Duolun soil, while denitrification for the Canterbury soil. Microbial processes controlling N2O emission differed in grassland soils, thus providing important baseline data in terms of global change.