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Crop residue carbon-to-nitrogen ratio regulates denitrifier N2O production post flooding

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Abstract

The response of nitrifier and denitrifier populations and associated N2O emissions to different carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N = 17 or 45) straw amendments was monitored under flooding-drying and non-flooding conditions. A 10-week laboratory mesocosm study was conducted in two soils, (i) a paddy soil with a long history of managed flooding-drying (CN), and (ii) a wheat cropping soil with no previous history of flooding (UK). We measured N2O fluxes and the abundances of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), nitrite reductase (nirK and nirS) genes, and nitrous oxide reductase (nosZI and nosZII) genes during flooding (4 weeks) and post-flooding (6 weeks). Straw addition enhanced N2O emissions, with higher fluxes apparent after incorporation of narrow C/N residues. Moreover, the impact of crop amendment on N2O emission was exacerbated when soil was under flooding-drying conditions. The abundances of nirS and nosZI genes in CN soil and AOA gene in UK soil were increased by straw amendment, with highest in narrow C/N straw amendments. Structural equation modeling showed that the impact of denitrifier gene abundance on the N2O flux was stronger than that of nitrifier gene abundance in the two soils, and significant correlations were observed between N2O fluxes and the consumption of DOC and NO3−, indicating that denitrification was the dominant N2O production pathway during the drying phase. The ratio of (nirS + nirK)/(nosZI + nosZII) in the narrow C/N amendment was greater than in the wide C/N treatment after flooding, suggesting that the straw C/N ratio had an effect on the capacity for N2O production via denitrification. We conclude that crop amendments with an appropriate C/N ratio could minimize N2O fluxes through regulating the denitrification process when soils are subjected to regular flooding and drying and also experiencing greater frequencies of flooding.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financed by UK-China Virtual Joint Centre for Agricultural Nitrogen (CINAg) funded by the Newton Fund via UK BBSRC/NERC (BB/N013468/1). We would like to thank the Bangor University, Rothamsted Research, and China Scholarship Council which supported the research in the UK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Wei Zhou & Ronggui Hu

  2. School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK

    Wei Zhou, Davey L. Jones & David R. Chadwick

  3. SoilsWest, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Davey L. Jones

  4. Department of Sustainable Agriculture Sciences, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Ian M. Clark

  5. Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Agriculture Green Development in Yangtze River Basin, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    David R. Chadwick

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  1. Wei Zhou
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Zhou, W., Jones, D.L., Hu, R. et al. Crop residue carbon-to-nitrogen ratio regulates denitrifier N2O production post flooding. Biol Fertil Soils 56, 825–838 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-020-01462-z

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