Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal: Science of the Total Environment

Volume number: 725

ISSN: 0048-9697

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138427

Publisher: Elsevier

Abstract: 
To test the effect of C:N ratio on soil N2O production, N2O production rates and pathways associated with nitrification (AOA-amoA, AOB-amoA, fungal ITS rDNA, bacterial 16S rRNA), and denitrification-related (nirK, nirS, nosZ) genes were investigated in subtropical forest (SF) and cropland (SC) soil in China in a 30-day C:N ratio manipulation. In addition, 24-hour C:N ratio manipulation, including the addition of acetic acid, were conducted to verify the results observed in the 30-day experiment. After 30 days of manipulation, the N2O production rates (N2Ot) increased from 2.46 in CN23 treatment to 4.71 mu g N kg(-1) day(-1) in CN 10 treatment in SF, while it decreased from 4.17 in CN23 treatment to 3.83 mu g N kg(-1) day(-1) in CN10 treatment in SC. The results in 24-hour experiment were consistent with those in 30-day experiment, and the addition of acetic acid increased N2Ot in SC, but not in SF. Soil C:N ratios and inorganic N (NH4++ NO3-) concentrations influenced the contribution of denitrification to N2O production and the N2O production rate via denitrification. Soil AOA played a dominant role in autotrophic nitrification-derived N2O production, resulting in a high contribution of autotrophic nitrification under low pH. Therefore, pH instead of C:N ratio, is a key parameter for evaluating autotrophic nitrificationderived N2O via AOA and AOB. Soil C:N ratio was significantly and positively correlated with the contribution of heterotrophic nitrification to N2O production, while there was no significant correlation with the N2O production rate via heterotrophic nitrification. This is mainly because the responsible heterotrophs (i.e., fungi and

Harvard Citation style: Zhang, Y., Cai, Z., Zhang, J. and Müller, C. (2020) C:N ratio is not a reliable predictor of N2O production in acidic soils after a 30-day artificial manipulation, Science of the Total Environment, 725, Article 138427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138427

APA Citation style: Zhang, Y., Cai, Z., Zhang, J., & Müller, C. (2020). C:N ratio is not a reliable predictor of N2O production in acidic soils after a 30-day artificial manipulation. Science of the Total Environment. 725, Article 138427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138427