The inhibiting effect of nitrate fertilisation on methane uptake of a temperate forest soil is influenced by labile carbon

Abstract

Upland soils are the most important terrestrial sink for the greenhouse gas CH4. The oxidation of CH4 is highly influenced by reactive N which is increasingly added to many ecosystems by atmospheric deposition and thereby also alters the labile C pool in the soils. The interacting effects of soil N availability and the labile C pool on CH4 oxidation are not well understood. We conducted a laboratory experiment with soil columns consisting of homogenised topsoil material from a temperate broad-leaved forest to study the net CH4 flux under the combined or isolated addition of NO 3 − and glucose as a labile C source. Addition of NO 3 − and glucose reduced the net CH4 uptake of the soil by 86% and 83%, respectively. The combined addition of both agents led to a nearly complete inhibition of CH4 uptake (reduction by 99.4%). Our study demonstrates a close link between the availability of C and N and the rate of CH4 oxidation in temperate forest soils. Continued deposition of NO 3 − has the potential to reduce the sink strength of temperate forest soils for CH4.