Simplification of soil biota communities impairs nutrient recycling and enhances above‐ and belowground nitrogen losses

• DOI: 10.1111/nph.19252
• Publication Date: 2023-09-13T05:17:39Z
• Authors: S. Franz Bender; Stefanie Schulz; Rubén Martínez‐Cu...; Ronald J. Laughlin; Susanne Kublik; Kristina Pfeiffer...; Gisle Vestergaard; Kyle Hartman; Eloi Parladé; Jörg Römbke; Catherine J. Watson; Michael Schloter; Marcel G. A. van ...
• Keywords: Biota; Nutrient pollution; Nutrient cycle

Agriculture is a major source of nutrient pollution, posing threat to the earth system functioning. Factors determining use efficiency plant-soil systems need be identified develop strategies reduce losses while ensuring crop productivity. The potential soil biota tighten cycles by improving plant nutrition and reducing still poorly understood. We manipulated communities in outdoor lysimeters, planted maize, continuously collected leachates, measured N2 O- -gas emissions after fertilization pulse test whether differences affected recycling N losses. Lysimeters with strongly simplified showed reduced (-20%) P (-58%) uptake, increased leaching (+65%), gaseous (+97%) O . Soil metagenomic analyses revealed abundance genes responsible for nitrate reduction, denitrification that helped explain observed are drivers cycling reductions diversity or certain groups (e.g. through land-use intensification) can disrupt cycling, agricultural productivity efficiency, exacerbate environmental pollution global warming.