TY - JOUR
T1 - Ammonia-oxidizing archaea respond positively to inorganic nitrogen addition in desert soils
AU - Marusenko, Yevgeniy
AU - Garcia-Pichel, Ferran
AU - Hall, Sharon
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by NSF through the CAP LTER program (grant BCS-1026865). Funding was also provided by the NSFWestern Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO) program and the Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA) at ASU.
Publisher Copyright:
© FEMS 2014. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - In soils, nitrogen (N) addition typically enhances ammonia oxidation (AO) rates and increases the population density of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), but not that of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). We asked if long-term inorganic N addition also has similar consequences in arid land soils, an understudied yet spatially ubiquitous ecosystem type. Using Sonoran Desert top soils from between and under shrubs within a long-term N-enrichment experiment, we determined community concentration-response kinetics of AO and measured the total and relative abundance of AOA and AOB based on amoA gene abundance. As expected, N addition increased maximum AO rates and the abundance of bacterial amoA genes compared to the controls. Surprisingly, N addition also increased the abundance of archaeal amoA genes. We did not detect any major effects of N addition on ammonia-oxidizing community composition. The ammonia-oxidizing communities in these desert soils were dominated by AOA as expected (78% of amoA gene copies were related to Nitrososphaera), but contained unusually high contributions of Nitrosomonas (18%) and unusually low numbers of Nitrosospira (2%). This study highlights unique traits of ammonia oxidizers in arid lands, which should be considered globally in predictions of AO responses to changes in N availability.
AB - In soils, nitrogen (N) addition typically enhances ammonia oxidation (AO) rates and increases the population density of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), but not that of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA). We asked if long-term inorganic N addition also has similar consequences in arid land soils, an understudied yet spatially ubiquitous ecosystem type. Using Sonoran Desert top soils from between and under shrubs within a long-term N-enrichment experiment, we determined community concentration-response kinetics of AO and measured the total and relative abundance of AOA and AOB based on amoA gene abundance. As expected, N addition increased maximum AO rates and the abundance of bacterial amoA genes compared to the controls. Surprisingly, N addition also increased the abundance of archaeal amoA genes. We did not detect any major effects of N addition on ammonia-oxidizing community composition. The ammonia-oxidizing communities in these desert soils were dominated by AOA as expected (78% of amoA gene copies were related to Nitrososphaera), but contained unusually high contributions of Nitrosomonas (18%) and unusually low numbers of Nitrosospira (2%). This study highlights unique traits of ammonia oxidizers in arid lands, which should be considered globally in predictions of AO responses to changes in N availability.
KW - Ammonia oxidation
KW - AmoA
KW - Arid land
KW - Niche differentiation
KW - Nitrogen enrichment
KW - Thaumarchaeota
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U2 - 10.1093/femsec/iu023
DO - 10.1093/femsec/iu023
M3 - Article
C2 - 25764551
AN - SCOPUS:84954511190
SN - 0168-6496
VL - 91
JO - FEMS microbiology ecology
JF - FEMS microbiology ecology
IS - 2
M1 - iu023
ER -