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Spatial distribution and co-occurrence of aerobic ammonia oxidation and anaerobic ammonium oxidation activities in the water-soil interface, bulk, and rhizosphere regions of paddy soil

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Abstract

Purpose

Aerobic ammonia oxidation often couples with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in natural ecosystems; however, their in situ activities and relative contributions are still unclear.

Methods

We evaluated in situ activities of both processes in the water-soil interface, bulk, and rhizosphere regions of paddy soil by 15N stable isotope.

Results

At the interface, we only detected aerobic ammonia oxidation activities (RA, 6.06 mmol L−1 d−1), and RA was significantly higher than in the other two regions. In the bulk soil, the RA and anammox activities (RAn) were 0.87 and 1.84 mmol L−1 d−1, respectively. In the rhizosphere soil, the RA and RAn were 0.92 and 1.17 mmol L−1 d−1, respectively. Aerobic ammonia oxidation contributed 7.0%, 5.9%, and 3.9% to the total ammonium consumption in the interface, bulk, and rhizosphere regions, respectively, while anammox contributed 13.3% and 5.3% in the bulk and rhizosphere regions, respectively. RA and RAn were positively correlated with transcript abundances of amoA and hzsB genes, respectively, rather than gene abundances. Moreover, dissolved oxygen (DO) was the most critical factor statistically influencing RA and RAn, while dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total organic carbon (TOC) was also correlated with RAn.

Conclusion

Overall, we demonstrated that in situ aerobic ammonia oxidation in the interface and rhizosphere regions was more active than in the bulk soil, whereas in situ anammox was more active in the bulk soil. This study provides an increased understanding of the in situ distribution and contributions of aerobic ammonia oxidation and anammox co-occurring in complex ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the groups of Prof. Zucong Cai in the Nan**g Normal University and Prof. **aoyuan Yan in the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences for nitrogen measurements. We thank LetPub for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Data Availability

Not applicable.

Code availability

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Pearl millet; Rhizosphere microbial diversity; Rhizosphere enzymatic activities; Rhizosheath; Metabarcoding.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771286, 42077033 and 41730753) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0200302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Materials Cycling and Pollution Control, School of Geography Sciences, Nan**g Normal University, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Jie Xu, Cheng Han, Yunbin Jiang & Wenhui Zhong

  2. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nan**g, 210023, China

    Cheng Han & Wenhui Zhong

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  1. Jie Xu
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  2. Cheng Han
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  4. Wenhui Zhong
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Contributions

WenHui Zhong, Cheng Han and Jie Xu conceived and designed research. Jie Xu conducted experiments and analyzed data. Jie Xu wrote and modified the manuscript with the help of Cheng Han and Yunbin Jiang. All of the authors gave final approval for publication of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wenhui Zhong.

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Xu, J., Han, C., Jiang, Y. et al. Spatial distribution and co-occurrence of aerobic ammonia oxidation and anaerobic ammonium oxidation activities in the water-soil interface, bulk, and rhizosphere regions of paddy soil. Plant Soil 466, 557–568 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04987-w

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