Application of 15N tracing and bioinformatics for estimating microbial-mediated nitrogen cycle processes in oil-contaminated soils

Abstract

Crude oil pollution can profoundly alter the nitrogen (N) cycle in the soil. Here, a 30-day incubation with ¹⁵N tracer approach was performed to assess the impacts of crude oil concentrations (medium: 10,000 mg kg^-1; heavy: 50,000 mg kg^-1) on soil N cycling based on a numerical model. Results showed that crude oil pollution significantly increased the gross N-transformation rates, but the rates of oxidation of recalcitrant organic N, the immbolization of NO₃^- and the adsorption of NH₄⁺ changed differently as a function of hydrocarbon concentrations. There was no significant difference of the oxidation rate of recalcitrant organic N between the medium and heavy oil-contaminated soils (medium: 0.1149 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1; heavy: 0.1299 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1), but the rates of NO₃^- immobilization (0.1135 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1) and NH₄⁺ adsorption were the highest (0.1148 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1) in the moderately oil-contaminated soils than those in the heavy polluted soil (0.0849 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1 and 0.0034 mmol N kg^-1 d^-1, respectively). The NO₃^- immobilization rate was 2.5-fold higher than its reduction rate, indicating that NO₃^- immobilization played a more important role during the process of NO₃^- transformation. Microbial community structure analysis indicated that phyla of Actinobacteria and Ascomycota respectively promoted the immobilization of NO₃^- to recalcitrant organic N and the reduction of NO₃^- to NH₄⁺. The genus of Aspergillus was related to net NH₄⁺ production, and the genera of Penicillium and Acremonium were responsible for oxidation of recalcitrant organic N to NO₃^-.

Keywords: (15)N-tracing; Analytical modeling; Microbial community; N-cycling; Petroleum-contaminated soil.