Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
Volume 95, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/femsec/fiz073
Keywords
denitrifier; nitrifier; quantitative PCR; reverse transcription qPCR; nitrous oxide; snow depth
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Funding
- National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology [DBI-1308814]
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada [541/J-000200]
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In eastern Canada, climate change-related warming and increased precipitation may alter winter snow cover, with potential consequences for soil conditions, nitrogen (N) cycling, and microbes. We conducted a 2-year field study aimed at determining the influence of snow removal, snow accumulation, and ambient snow in a potato-barley crop system on the abundance and expression of denitrifier (nirS, nirK, nosZ) and nitrifier (ammonium oxidizing archaeal (AOA) and bacterial (AOB) amoA) genes. Denitrifier and nitrifier abundance and expression results were compared to N2O production, soil atmosphere accumulation, and surface fluxes. In the first winter, nirK abundance was lowest while AOB abundance was greatest in snow accumulation treatments. In the second winter, greatest abundances were observed in the ambient snow treatment, which had greatest N2O accumulation and spring thaw fluxes, suggesting a link between microbial populations and biogeochemical functioning. Treatment effects on gene expression were limited, but greatest AOA, AOB, and nosZ expression was measured near 0 degrees C and above 15 degrees C, indicating that activity was promoted by freeze-thaw conditions and at summer temperatures. Overall, effects of changing snow depth on denitrifier and nitrifier abundance were not solely due to change in soil temperature, but also to soil moisture and/or interactions between these parameters.
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