Organic nitrogen stimulates the heterotrophic nitrification rate in an acidic forest soil

Abstract

Many previous studies have demonstrated that heterotrophic nitrification processes play an important role in the production of NO3− in acidic soils. However, it is not clear whether a low concentration of nitrogenous organic compounds support heterotrophic nitrification processes in natural soils. In this study, we performed an 15N tracer experiment with a glycine concentration gradient (20, 40, 80, and 160 mg Nkg−1) to investigate the effect of the organic nitrogen concentration on the heterotrophic nitrification rate and its relative contribution to the total nitrification of the studied acidic forest soil. This experiment demonstrated that 15N–NO3− accumulated over time with all nitrogen treatments in the presence of acetylene, confirming that heterotrophic nitrification occurred even at a low organic nitrogen concentration (20 mg kg−1) in the studied acidic forest soil. In the presence of acetylene, the 15N–NO3− concentration in the 20 and 40 mg kg−1 glycine-N treatments was significantly lower than in the 80 and 160 mg kg−1 glycine-N treatments (p < 0.05), indicating that a high organic nitrogen concentration stimulated the heterotrophic nitrification rate. There was no significant difference in the average contribution of heterotrophic nitrification to total nitrification among the different nitrogen treatments, suggesting that the organic nitrogen concentration did not affect the relative contribution of heterotrophic nitrification to total nitrification in the studied acidic soil. Our results confirmed that a low concentration of organic N (20 mg kg−1) supported heterotrophic nitrification in the studied soil. The organic nitrogen concentration stimulates the heterotrophic nitrification rate, but does not affect the relative contribution of heterotrophic nitrification to total nitrification in the studied acidic soil.