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Nitrogen and Phosphorus Additions Alter the Abundance of Phosphorus-Solubilizing Bacteria and Phosphatase Activity in Grassland Soils
Frontiers in Environmental Science
  • Meike Widdig, University of Bayreuth
  • Per-M. Schleuss, University of Bayreuth
  • Alfons R. Weig, University of Bayreuth
  • Alexander Guhr, University of Bayreuth
  • Lori A. Biederman, Iowa State University
  • Elizabeth T. Borer, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Michael J. Crawley, Imperial College London
  • Kevin P. Kirkman, University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • Eric W. Seabloom, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Peter D. Wragg, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Marie Spohn, University of Bayreuth
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
11-1-2019
DOI
10.3389/fenvs.2019.00185
Abstract

Microorganisms mobilize phosphorus (P) in soil by solubilizing bound inorganic P from soil minerals and by mineralizing organic P via phosphatase enzymes. Nitrogen (N) inputs are predicted to increase through human activities and shift plants to be more P limited, increasing the importance of P mobilization processes for plant nutrition. We studied how the relative abundance of P-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), PSB community composition, and phosphatase activity respond to N and P addition (+N, +P, +NP) in grassland soils spanning large biogeographic gradients. The studied soils are located in South Africa, USA, and UK and part of a globally coordinated nutrient addition experiment. We show that the abundance of PSB in the topsoil was reduced by −18% in the N and by −41% in the NP treatment compared to the control. In contrast, phosphatase activity was significantly higher in the N treatment than in the control across all soils. Soil C:P ratio, sand content, pH, and water-extractable P together explained 71% of the variance of the abundance of PSB across all study sites and all treatments. Further, the community of PSB in the N and NP addition treatment differed significantly from the control. Taken together, this study shows that N addition reduced the relative abundance of PSB, altered the PSB community, and increased phosphatase activity, whereas P addition had no impact. Increasing atmospheric N deposition may therefore increase mineralization of organic P and decrease solubilization of bound inorganic P, possibly inducing a switch in the dominant P mobilization processes from P solubilization to P mineralization.

Comments

This article is published as Widdig, Meike, Per-M. Schleuss, Alfons R. Weig, Alexander Guhr, Lori A. Biederman, Elizabeth T. Borer, Michael J. Crawley et al. "Nitrogen and phosphorus additions alter the abundance of phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria and phosphatase activity in grassland soils." Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 (2019): 185. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2019.00185.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Copyright Owner
Widdig, Schleuss, Weig, Guhr, Biederman, Borer, Crawley, Kirkman, Seabloom, Wragg and Spohn
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Meike Widdig, Per-M. Schleuss, Alfons R. Weig, Alexander Guhr, et al.. "Nitrogen and Phosphorus Additions Alter the Abundance of Phosphorus-Solubilizing Bacteria and Phosphatase Activity in Grassland Soils" Frontiers in Environmental Science Vol. 7 (2019) p. 185
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/lori_biederman/25/