Search results for "nitrogen cycle"
showing 10 items of 68 documents
Soil animals and ecosystem processes: How much does nutrient cycling explain?
2008
Summary Trophic-dynamic hypotheses have been extensively tested by manipulating the presence of soil animals in experimental laboratory microcosms. Soil animals typically have pronounced effects on microbial populations, nutrient cycling and plant growth. However, because often only the total effect has been reported, the relative importance of feeding interactions versus non-trophic effects remains obscure. Using simple calculations based on mass conservation I argue that the observed faunal effect on microbes and system functioning is often larger than can be explained by trophic dynamics and nutrient cycling. Non-trophic effects may help to explain why microcosm experiments have failed t…
Simulating soil freeze/thaw cycles typical of winter alpine conditions: Implications for N and P availability
2007
Abstract Seasonally snow-covered alpine soils may be subjected to freeze/thaw cycles, particularly during years having little snow and during the late winter and early spring periods. Freeze/thaw cycles can stimulate soil mineralization and could therefore be one factor regulating nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability and cycling. In this study laboratory incubation experiments using four soils having contrasting properties have been used to characterize the change in N and P forms (microbial and soluble inorganic/organic) that occur after simulated freeze/thaw cycles. Soil samples were collected from locations representing extreme examples of either direct human management (grazed m…
Methanotrophy induces nitrogen fixation during peatland development
2013
Significance In peatlands, the external sources of nitrogen are mainly atmospheric, but the atmospheric nitrogen deposition alone cannot explain the long-term annual nitrogen accumulation rates to these ecosystems. Because of methodological problems, methane-induced fixation of atmospheric dinitrogen gas has been previously overlooked as an additional nitrogen input mechanism. We found that the activity of methane-oxidizing bacteria provides not only carbon but also nitrogen to peat mosses and, thus, contributes to carbon and nitrogen accumulation in peatlands, which store approximately one-third of the global soil carbon pool. Our results imply that nitrogen fixation in wetlands may be str…
Dataset of a globally relevant stock of soil nitrogen in the Yedoma permafrost domain
2022
This dataset merges nitrogen data from the Yedoma domain. It includes numerous fieldwork campaigns, which take place since 1998. In total 467 samples from the active layer (seasonally thawed layer), 175 samples from perennially frozen Holocene cover deposits, 479 samples from thermokarst deposits in drained thermokarst, 175 in-situ thawed, diagenetically (anaerobic microbial decomposition possible during unfrozen phase) altered Yedoma deposits (called Taberite), and 917 samples from frozen Yedoma deposits are included. Moreover it includes a NH4+ and NO3- quantification basing on of 658 samples, including 378 data points for NH4+ (active layer, 93; Holocene cover, 108; thermokarst sediment,…
Arginase activity is a useful marker of nitrogen limitation during alcoholic fermentations.
2003
Nitrogen deficiency in musts is one of the causes of sluggish or stuck fermentations. In this work we propose that arginase activity determination can be useful for detecting nitrogen starvation early in vinification. CAR1 and YGP1 genes are not specifically induced under conditions of nitrogen starvation. However, a significant increase in the enzymatic activity of arginase, the product of the CAR1 gene, is detected in vinifications carried out with musts containing limiting amounts of nitrogen. Moreover, on adding ammonia to a nitrogen-deficient vinification, even at late stages, this enzymatic activity is repressed, and growth rate is restored simultaneously. We also investigate the role…
Short-term effect of ammonia concentration and salinity on activity of ammonia oxidizing bacteria.
2010
A continuously aerated SHARON (single reactor high activity ammonia removal over nitrite) system has been operated to achieve partial nitritation. Two sets of batch experiments were carried out to study the effect of ammonia concentration and salinity on the activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Activity of AOB raised as free ammonia concentration was increased reaching its maximum value at 4.5 mg NH 3 -N l −1 . The half saturation constant for free ammonia was determined (K NH 3 = 0.32 mg NH 3 -N l −1 ). Activity decreased at TAN (total ammonium–nitrogen) concentration over 2,000 mg NH 4 -N l −1 . No free ammonia inhibition was detected. The effect of salinity was studied by adding…
Leaf vs. epiphyte nitrogen uptake in a nutrient enriched Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow
2012
Abstract In situ nitrogen uptake by leaves and epiphytes was studied in a Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow impacted from a fish farm and a pristine meadow, using 15NH4 and 15NO3 as tracers. In the impacted meadow both leaves and epiphytes yielded higher N concentrations and showed higher specific N uptake, suggesting a linkage between N uptake and its accumulation. Epiphytes took up N faster than leaves in relation to their corresponding biomass, but when assessed per unit area, N uptake was higher in leaves. Leaf N uptake was negatively correlated with epiphyte N uptake. With increasing epiphyte load on leaves, N leaf uptake decreased while N epiphyte uptake increased, in…
Determinants of the distribution of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities at the landscape-scale
2010
Little information is available regarding the landscape-scale distribution of microbial communities and its environmental determinants. However, a landscape perspective is needed to understand the relative importance of local and regional factors and land management for the microbial communities. In this manuscript, we investigated the distribution of functional microbial communities involved in N-cycling and of the total bacterial and crenarchaeal communities over 107 sites using a grid with a 16 km lag distance within Burgundy, a 31 500 km2 region in France. After quantifying the abundances of the total bacterial, crenarchaeal, nitrate-reducing, denitrifying and ammonia-oxidizing communit…
Effets simultanés de niveaux croissants de glucose et de pressions partielles en oxygène sur la dénitrification et la réduction dissimilative du nitr…
1998
International audience; Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) and its importance in comparison to denitrification were studied in soil samples artificially repacked to control water potential and porosity, and incubated for 72 h. Labelled nitrate (100 mg N.kg-’ dry soil, 21.8 % 15N in excess) and increasing levels of glucose-C (250, 500 and 1 000 mg glucose-Ckg-’ dry soil) were initially added to the soil samples to obtain increasing glucose-C/nitrate-N ratios of 2.5,5 and 10, which were then subjected to different 0, partial pressures (0,0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 % (v/v)). The results confirmed the good reproducibility of the experimental condi- tions using this method. Denitrification…
Loss in microbial diversity affects nitrogen cycling in soil
2013
International audience; Microbial communities have a central role in ecosystem processes by driving the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. However, the importance of microbial diversity for ecosystem functioning is still debated. Here, we experimentally manipulated the soil microbial community using a dilution approach to analyze the functional consequences of diversity loss. A trait-centered approach was embraced using the denitrifiers as model guild due to their role in nitrogen cycling, a major ecosystem service. How various diversity metrics related to richness, eveness and phylogenetic diversity of the soil denitrifier community were affected by the removal experiment was assessed by 454 s…