Ammonia oxidation and nitrate reduction marker genes are key indicators of nitrogen losses in temperate forest catchments

0580054 - ÚVGZ 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Tahovská, K. - Kaštovská, E. - Choma, M. - Capek, P. - Bárta, J. - Oulehle, Filip
Ammonia oxidation and nitrate reduction marker genes are key indicators of nitrogen losses in temperate forest catchments.
Environmental Microbiology. Roč. 25, č. 10 (2023), s. 2049-2053. ISSN 1462-2912. E-ISSN 1462-2920
Research Infrastructure: CzeCOS IV - 90248
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : natural-abundance delta-n-15 * oxidizing archaea * soil * denitrification
OECD category: Soil science
Impact factor: 5.1, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://ami-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1462-2920.16441

Chronic nitrogen inputs can alleviate N limitation and potentially impose N losses in forests, indicated by soil enrichment in N-15 over N-14. However, the complexity of the nitrogen cycle hinders accurate quantification of N fluxes. Simultaneously, soil ecologists are striving to find meaningful indicators to characterise the openness of the nitrogen cycle. We integrate soil delta N-15 with constrained ecosystem N losses and the functional gene potential of the soil microbiome in 14 temperate forest catchments. We show that N losses are associated with soil delta N-15 and that delta N-15 scales with the abundance of soil bacteria. The abundance of the archaeal amoA gene, representing the first step in nitrification (ammonia oxidation to nitrite), followed by the abundance of narG and napA genes, associated with the first step in denitrification (nitrate reduction to nitrite), explains most of the variability in soil delta N-15. These genes are more informative than the denitrification genes nirS and nirK, which are directly linked to N2O production. Nitrite formation thus appears to be the critical step associated with N losses. Furthermore, we show that the genetic potential for ammonia oxidation and nitrate reduction is representative of forest soil N-15 enrichment and thus indicative of ecosystem N losses.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0348834