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Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium dominates soil nitrate retention capacity in subtropical forests

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Abstract

The abundance, community composition and activity of key nitrogen (N)-cycling functional guilds were monitored at a site where coniferous Cunninghamia lanceolate and broadleaved Mytilaria laosensis were planted in 1993. Leaf cellulose, litter C/N ratio, leaf dry matter content, soil inorganic N content were significantly higher under C. lanceolata, while specific leaf area, litter production, litter magnesium, soil C and soil C/NO3− ratio were higher under M. laosensis. The 15N tracing experiment together with quantitative PCR revealed that autotrophic nitrification rates, as well as the abundances of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and comammox Nitrospira were significantly higher under C. lanceolate than M. laosensis. However, M. laosensis exhibited substantially higher nitrate retention capacity via dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), accompanied by a significantly higher abundance of nrfA gene than C. lanceolate. The Illumina sequencing indicated that tree species markedly affected soil bacterial community composition regardless of the soil layers. Redundancy analysis suggested that litter C/N ratio was the most influential factor explaining functional gene abundances and bacterial communities. Taken together, our findings showed that M. laosensis improved soil N retention capacity mainly through inhibiting autotrophic nitrification while enhancing DNRA activity. This study highlights the importance of tree species identity in influencing the microbially-mediated N cycling and bacterial community composition.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the sampling processing and laboratory assistance from Lei Wang and Tao Wang. We thank the three anonymous reviewers and editor for improving the scope and the quality of the manuscript. This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41907022, 31741024 and 31901165), and the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (31625007). The study was carried out in collaboration with the German Science foundation research unit DASIM (DFG FOR 2337). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Humid Subtropical Eco-geographical Processes of the Ministry of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Xiuzhen Shi, Jianqing Wang, Hang-Wei Hu, Ji-Zheng He & Zhiqun Huang

  2. Institute of Geography, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Xiuzhen Shi, Jianqing Wang & Zhiqun Huang

  3. School of Biology and Environmental Sciences and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Christoph Müller

  4. Institute of Plant Ecology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany

    Christoph Müller

  5. Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Hang-Wei Hu & Ji-Zheng He

  6. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Juntao Wang

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Shi, X., Wang, J., Müller, C. et al. Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium dominates soil nitrate retention capacity in subtropical forests. Biol Fertil Soils 56, 785–797 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-020-01457-w

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