Microbial inorganic nitrogen (N) immobilization is an important mechanism in the retention of N in soils. However, as a result of the high diversity and complexity of soil microorganisms, there is still no effective approach to measuring the respective immobilization rates of inorganic N by fungi and bacteria, which are the two dominant microbial communities in soils. We propose a mathematical framework, combining the experimentally measurable gross inorganic N immobilization rate and proxies for fungal and bacterial inorganic N immobilization rates, to quantify the respective immobilization rates of inorganic N by fungal and bacterial communities in soil. Our approach will help to unravel the mechanisms of microbial N retention in soils.

微生物无机氮的固定化是土壤中氮保留的重要机制。然而，由于土壤微生物的高度多样性和复杂性，仍然没有有效的方法来测量真菌和细菌对无机氮的固定率，而真菌和细菌是土壤中的两个主要微生物群落。我们提出了一个数学框架，将实验上可测量的总无机氮固定率与真菌和细菌无机氮固定率的代表相结合，以量化土壤中真菌和细菌群落对无机氮的固定率。我们的方法将有助于阐明土壤中微生物氮的保留机制。