The interactive effect of temperature and fertilizer types determines the dominant microbes in nitrous oxide emissions and the dicyandiamide efficacy in a vegetable soil

Highlights

● Dicyandiamide decreased N₂O emissions even under 40°C.

● Ammonia oxidizers and nirS were well adapted to 40°C in manured soils.

● Fungal nirK tolerated high temperature better in urea than manure treatment.

● Compared to nosZ II, nosZ I adapted to all temperature regardless of fertilization.

● nirS -denitrifier dominated N₂O emissions at high temperature in fertilized soil.

Abstract

Heat waves associated with global warming and extreme climates would arouse serious consequences on nitrogen (N) cycle. However, the responses of the functional guilds to different temperatures, especially high temperature and the cascading effect on N₂O emissions remain unclear. An incubation study was conducted to examine the effect of different temperatures (20°C, 30°C, and 40°C) and fertilizer types (urea and manure) on N₂O-producers and N₂O-reducers, as well as the efficacy of dicyandiamide (DCD) on N₂O emissions in a vegetable soil. Results showed that ammonia oxidizers and nirS-type denitrifiers were well adapted to high temperature (40°C) with manure application, while the fungal nirK-denitrifiers had better tolerance with urea application. The nosZ clade I microbes had a strong adaptability to various temperatures regardless of fertilization type, while the growth of nosZ clade II group microbes in non-fertilized soil (control) were significantly inhibited at higher temperature. The N₂O emissions were significantly decreased with increasing temperature and DCD application (up to 60%, even at 40°C). Under high temperature conditions, fungal denitrifiers play a significant role in N-limited soils (non-fertilized) while nirS-type denitrifiers was more important in fertilized soils in N₂O emissions, which should be specially targeted when mitigating N₂O emissions under global warming climate.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nitrogen fertilizer / microorganisms / nitrification inhibitor / bacteria / archaea / fungi

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFD1900602), Provincial Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang (2022C02046), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LR23D010002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42107316) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR202102260221).

Declarations

The authors declare no competing interests.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-023-0213-3 and is accessible for authorized users.

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