Effects of alpine meadow degradation on nitrifying and denitrifying microbial communities, and N2O emissions on the Tibetan Plateau
Lu Zhang A B , Xiangtao Wang C , Jie Wang D , Qian Wan D , Lirong Liao A B , Guobin Liu A D and Chao Zhang
A D *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, PR China.
B University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
C Department of Animal Sciences, Xizang Agriculture and Animal Husbandry College, Linzhi 860000, PR China.
D State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, PR China.
Soil Research 60(2) 158-172 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR21097
Submitted: 10 April 2021 Accepted: 6 August 2021 Published: 25 October 2021
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
Meadow degradation is often accompanied by significant changes in nitrogen (N)-cycling and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission potential, and leads to challenges in meadow management. However, the mechanisms of soil N-cycling and N2O emissions remain poorly understood, especially in alpine ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the soil N-cycling process in four alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau along a degradation gradient using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and amplicon sequencing to elucidate the mechanisms. Compared to non-degraded meadows, meadow degradation reduced N2O emissions by 38.5–140.2%. Meadow degradation reduced the abundance of amoA of ammonia-oxidising archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidising bacteria (AOB), whereas light and moderate degradation increased the abundance of genes nirS, nirK, and nosZ. Lightly degraded meadow exhibited the highest α-diversity of both nitrifiers and denitrifiers, but this higher diversity was not accompanied by higher N2O emissions, with only 32.3% of the microbial taxa identified as predictors of N2O emissions, suggesting that functional redundancy exists in the N-cycling process in meadow ecosystems. Nitrosospira and Mesorhizobium from the AOB and nirK communities, respectively, were identified as the key taxa that may contribute to N2O emissions. Soil properties, especially N reaction substrates, including ammonium-N, nitrate-N, dissolved organic N, and total N, were the primary drivers for N2O emissions via mediation of the N-cycling community, especially nitrifiers. Our results emphasised the importance of environmental factors in shaping nitrifying, denitrifying, and N2O emissions, providing insights for the restoration of degraded meadow ecosystems.
Keywords: alpine meadow, denitrification, functional genes, functional microbial diversity, meadow degradation gradient, N2O emissions, N-cycling, nitrification, partial least squares path model.
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