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N2O production pathways relate to land use type in acidic soils in subtropical China

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Agricultural practises impact soil properties and N transformation rate, and have a greater effect on N2O production pathways in agricultural soils compared with natural woodland soils. However, whether agricultural land use affects N2O production pathways in acidic soils in subtropical regions remains unknown.

Materials and methods

In this study, we collected natural woodland soil (WD) and three types of agricultural soils, namely upland agricultural (UA), tea plantation (TP) and bamboo plantation (BP) soils. We performed paired 15N-tracing experiment to investigate the effects of land use types on N2O production pathways in acidic soils in subtropical regions in China.

Results and discussion

The results revealed that heterotrophic nitrification is the dominant pathway of N2O production in WD, accounting for 44.6 % of N2O emissions, whereas heterotrophic nitrification contributed less than 2.7 % in all three agricultural soils, due to a lower organic C content and soil C/N ratio. In contrast, denitrification dominated N2O production in agricultural soils, accounting for 54.5, 72.8 and 77.1 % in UA, TP and BP, respectively. Nitrate (NO3 −) predominantly affected the contribution from denitrification in soils under different land use types. Autotrophic nitrification increased after the conversion of woodland to agricultural lands, peaking at 42.8 % in UA compared with only 21.5 % in WD, and was positively correlated with soil pH. Our data suggest that pH plays a great role in controlling N2O emissions through autotrophic nitrification following conversion of woodland to agricultural lands.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate the variability in N2O production pathways in soils of different land use types. Soil pH, the quantity and quality of organic C and NO3 − content primarily determined N2O emissions. These results will likely assist modelling and mitigation of N2O emissions from different land use types in subtropical acidic soils in China and elsewhere.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41571227), the “973” Project (2014CB953803) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD, 164320H116).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Yi Zhang, Wei Zhao, Jinbo Zhang & Zucong Cai

  2. College of Environmental Science, Nanjing Industry University, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Wei Zhao

  3. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing, China

    Jinbo Zhang & Zucong Cai

  4. State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base of Geographical Environment Evolution, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210023, China

    Jinbo Zhang

  5. Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographical Environment (VGE), Ministry of Education, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China

    Zucong Cai

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  1. Yi Zhang
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  2. Wei Zhao
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  3. Jinbo Zhang
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  4. Zucong Cai
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Correspondence to Jinbo Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Zhang, Y., Zhao, W., Zhang, J. et al. N2O production pathways relate to land use type in acidic soils in subtropical China. J Soils Sediments 17, 306–314 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1554-7

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