Soil recalcitrant but not labile organic nitrogen mineralization contributes to microbial nitrogen immobilization and plant nitrogen uptake
Soil organic nitrogen (N) mineralization not only supports ecosystem productivity but also weakens carbon and N accumulation in soils. Recalcitrant (mainly mineral‐associated organic matter) and labile (mainly particulate organic matter) organic materials differ dramatically in nature. Yet, the patterns and drivers of recalcitrant (MNrec) and labile (MNlab)
organic N mineralization rates and their consequences on ecosystem N retention are still unclear. By collecting MNrec (299 observations) and MNlab (299 observations) from 57 15N tracing studies, we found that soil pH and total N were the master factors controlling MNrec and MNlab, respectively. This was consistent with the significantly higher rates of MNrec in alkaline soils and of MNlab in natural ecosystems. Interestingly, our analysis revealed that MNrec directly stimulated microbial N immobilization and plant N uptake, while MNlab stimulated the soil gross autotrophic nitrification which discouraged ammonium immobilization and accelerated nitrate production. We also noted that MNrec was more efficient at lower precipitation and higher temperatures due to increased soil pH. In contrast, MNlab was more efficient at higher precipitation and lower temperatures due to increased soil total N. Overall, we suggest that increasing MNrec may lead to a conservative N cycle, improving the ecosystem services and functions, while increasing MNlab may stimulate the potential risk of soil N loss.
A systematic analysis reveals the driving patterns of different organic nitrogen fraction mineralization, and it highlights the importance of recalcitrant organic nitrogen mineralization for microbial nitrogen immobilization and plant nitrogen uptake.
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Bibliographic Details
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Published in
- Global change biology
Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. e17290 - n/a
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Main Authors
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Chen, Shending,
Elrys, Ahmed S.,
Yang, Wenyan,
Du, Siwen,
He, Mengqiu,
Cai, Zucong,
Zhang, Jinbo,
Müller, Christoph
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Document Type
- Journal Article
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Language
- English
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Published
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England
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01. 04. 2024
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Subjects
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Bibliography
- Shending Chen and Ahmed S. Elrys contributed equally to this work.
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
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ISSN
- 1354-1013
1365-2486
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DOI
- 10.1111/gcb.17290
