Soil net nitrogen mineralisation across global grasslands

A C Risch; S Zimmermann; R Ochoa-Hueso; M Schütz; B Frey; J L Firn; P A Fay; F Hagedorn; E T Borer; E W Seabloom; W S Harpole; J M H Knops; R L McCulley; A A D Broadbent; C J Stevens; M L Silveira; P B Adler; S Báez; L A Biederman; J M Blair; C S Brown; M C Caldeira; S L Collins; P Daleo; A di Virgilio; A Ebeling; N Eisenhauer; E Esch; A Eskelinen; N Hagenah; Y Hautier; K P Kirkman; A S MacDougall; J L Moore; S A Power; S M Prober; C Roscher; M Sankaran; J Siebert; K L Speziale; P M Tognetti; R Virtanen; L Yahdjian; B Moser

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12948-2

Soil net nitrogen mineralisation across global grasslands

Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 31;10(1):4981. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12948-2.

Authors

A C Risch¹, S Zimmermann², R Ochoa-Hueso³, M Schütz², B Frey², J L Firn⁴, P A Fay⁵, F Hagedorn², E T Borer⁶, E W Seabloom⁶, W S Harpole^{7

8

9}, J M H Knops^{10

11}, R L McCulley¹², A A D Broadbent^{13

14}, C J Stevens¹⁴, M L Silveira¹⁵, P B Adler¹⁶, S Báez¹⁷, L A Biederman¹⁸, J M Blair¹⁹, C S Brown²⁰, M C Caldeira²¹, S L Collins²², P Daleo²³, A di Virgilio²⁴, A Ebeling²⁵, N Eisenhauer^{8

26}, E Esch²⁷, A Eskelinen^{7

8

28}, N Hagenah²⁹, Y Hautier³⁰, K P Kirkman³¹, A S MacDougall³², J L Moore³³, S A Power³⁴, S M Prober³⁵, C Roscher^{7

8}, M Sankaran^{36

37}, J Siebert^{8

26}, K L Speziale²⁴, P M Tognetti³⁸, R Virtanen^{7

8

28}, L Yahdjian³⁸, B Moser²

Affiliations

¹ Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland. [email protected].
² Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zuercherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
³ Department of Biology, IVAGRO, University of Cádiz, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (ceiA3), Campus Rio San Pedro, 11510, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
⁴ Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Science and Engineering Faculty, Brisbane, QLD, 4001, Australia.
⁵ USDA-ARS Grassland Soil, and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, TX, 76502, USA.
⁶ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
⁷ Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany.
⁸ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
⁹ Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, Halle (Saale), 06108, Germany.
¹⁰ School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, 211A Manter Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA.
¹¹ Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, Suzhou, 215213, China.
¹² Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546-0312, USA.
¹³ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michael Smith Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
¹⁴ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
¹⁵ University of Florida, Range Cattle Research and Education Center, Ona, FL, 33865, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main, Logan, UT, 84103, USA.
¹⁷ Departamento de Biología, Escuela Politécnica Nacional del Ecuador, Ladrón de Guevera E11-253 y Andalucía, Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁸ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
¹⁹ Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66502, USA.
²⁰ Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 1177 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
²¹ Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisboa, Portugal.
²² Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
²³ Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CONICET, Mar del Plata, Argentina.
²⁴ INIBIOMA (CONICET-UNCOMA), Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación (GrInBiC) Laboratorio Ecotono, Quintral, 1250, Bariloche, Argentina.
²⁵ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany.
²⁶ Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
²⁷ University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
²⁸ Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu, Pentti Kaiteran katu 1, 90014, Oulu, Finland.
²⁹ Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
³⁰ Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
³¹ University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa.
³² Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, ON, Canada.
³³ School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Claytion, VIC, 3800, Australia.
³⁴ Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
³⁵ CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia.
³⁶ National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, 560065, India.
³⁷ School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
³⁸ Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Agronomía, Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA), CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Abstract

Soil nitrogen mineralisation (N_min), the conversion of organic into inorganic N, is important for productivity and nutrient cycling. The balance between mineralisation and immobilisation (net N_min) varies with soil properties and climate. However, because most global-scale assessments of net N_min are laboratory-based, its regulation under field-conditions and implications for real-world soil functioning remain uncertain. Here, we explore the drivers of realised (field) and potential (laboratory) soil net N_min across 30 grasslands worldwide. We find that realised N_min is largely explained by temperature of the wettest quarter, microbial biomass, clay content and bulk density. Potential N_min only weakly correlates with realised N_min, but contributes to explain realised net N_min when combined with soil and climatic variables. We provide novel insights of global realised soil net N_min and show that potential soil net N_min data available in the literature could be parameterised with soil and climate data to better predict realised N_min.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't