Intermediate soil acidification induces highest nitrous oxide emissions

Yunpeng Qiu; Yi Zhang; Kangcheng Zhang; Xinyu Xu; Yunfeng Zhao; Tongshuo Bai; Yexin Zhao; Hao Wang; Xiongjie Sheng; Sean Bloszies; Christopher J Gillespie; Tangqing He; Yang Wang; Huaihai Chen; Lijin Guo; He Song; Chenglong Ye; Yi Wang; Alex Woodley; Jingheng Guo; Lei Cheng; Yongfei Bai; Yongguan Zhu; Sara Hallin; Mary K Firestone; Shuijin Hu

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-46931-3

Intermediate soil acidification induces highest nitrous oxide emissions

Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 27;15(1):2695. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46931-3.

Authors

Yunpeng Qiu¹, Yi Zhang¹, Kangcheng Zhang¹, Xinyu Xu¹, Yunfeng Zhao¹, Tongshuo Bai¹, Yexin Zhao¹, Hao Wang¹, Xiongjie Sheng^{1

2}, Sean Bloszies³, Christopher J Gillespie³, Tangqing He¹, Yang Wang⁴, Huaihai Chen⁵, Lijin Guo⁶, He Song⁷, Chenglong Ye¹, Yi Wang⁸, Alex Woodley⁹, Jingheng Guo¹⁰, Lei Cheng¹¹, Yongfei Bai⁴, Yongguan Zhu^{12

13

14}, Sara Hallin¹⁵, Mary K Firestone^{16

17}, Shuijin Hu¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
² School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China.
³ Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518107, China.
⁶ International Magnesium Institute, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.
⁷ College of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China.
⁸ State key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710061, China.
⁹ Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
¹⁰ Beijing Key Laboratory of Farmland Soil Pollution Prevention and Remediation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
¹¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
¹² Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China.
¹³ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
¹⁴ Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Urban Environmental Processes and Pollution Control, CAS Haixi Industrial Technology Innovation Center in Beilun, Ningbo, 315830, China.
¹⁵ Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, 75007, Sweden.
¹⁶ Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
¹⁷ Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA. shuijin_hu@ncsu.edu.

Abstract

Global potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from soil are accelerating, with increases in the proportion of reactive nitrogen emitted as N₂O, i.e., N₂O emission factor (EF). Yet, the primary controls and underlying mechanisms of EFs remain unresolved. Based on two independent but complementary global syntheses, and three field studies determining effects of acidity on N₂O EFs and soil denitrifying microorganisms, we show that soil pH predominantly controls N₂O EFs and emissions by affecting the denitrifier community composition. Analysis of 5438 paired data points of N₂O emission fluxes revealed a hump-shaped relationship between soil pH and EFs, with the highest EFs occurring in moderately acidic soils that favored N₂O-producing over N₂O-consuming microorganisms, and induced high N₂O emissions. Our results illustrate that soil pH has a unimodal relationship with soil denitrifiers and EFs, and the net N₂O emission depends on both the N₂O/(N₂O + N₂) ratio and overall denitrification rate. These findings can inform strategies to predict and mitigate soil N₂O emissions under future nitrogen input scenarios.

MeSH terms

Agriculture*
Denitrification
Fertilizers / analysis
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Nitrogen
Nitrous Oxide / analysis
Soil Microbiology
Soil* / chemistry

Substances

Soil
Nitrous Oxide
Fertilizers
Nitrogen