0000000000365155
AUTHOR
Aino Smolander
Nitrogen fixation and methanotrophy in forest mosses along a N deposition gradient
Abstract Nitrogen deposition has decreased the plant-associated nitrogen (N 2 ) fixation when measured using the indirect acetylene reduction assay (ARA). However, nitrogen deposition can also lead to changes in the diversity of moss symbionts, e.g. affect methanotrophic N 2 fixation, which is not measured by ARA. To test this hypothesis we compared ARA with the direct stable isotope method ( 15 N 2 incorporation) and studied methanotrophy in two mosses, Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi , collected from seven forest sites along a boreal latitudinal N deposition transect. We recognized that the two independent N 2 fixation measures gave corresponding results with the conversion …
Responses of soil carbon and nitrogen transformations to stump removal
We studied in central Finland whether stump harvesting after clear felling of coniferous forest poses further short-term changes in soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics when compared to the traditional site preparation method, mounding. Exposed mineral soil patches in Norway spruce (Picea abies) dominated clear-cut stands were sampled 1â5 years after the treatments. The extent of the exposed mineral soil surface was significantly larger at the stump removal sites when compared to the mounding sites. No differences were found in soil pH, organic matter content or total concentration of soil C between the treatments or treatment years. Total concentration of soil N was consistently higher and …
Methanotrophs are core members of the diazotroph community in decaying Norway spruce logs
Dead wood is initially a nitrogen (N) poor substrate, where the N content increases with decay, partly due to biological N2 fixation, but the drivers of the N accumulation are poorly known. We quantified the rate of N2 fixation in decaying Norway spruce logs of different decay stages and studied the potential regulators of the N2-fixation activity. The average rate for acetylene reduction in the decaying wood was 7.5 nmol ethylene g−1d−1, which corresponds to 52.9 μg N kg−1d−1. The number of nifH copies (g−1 dry matter) was higher at the later decay stages, but no correlation between the copy number and the in vitro N2 fixation rate was found. All recovered nifH sequences were assigned to t…