Nitrification Control by Plants and Preference for Ammonium versus Nitrate: Positive Feedbacks Increase Productivity but Undermine Resilience

Am Nat. 2024 Apr;203(4):E128-E141. doi: 10.1086/729090. Epub 2024 Feb 19.ABSTRACTAbstractSome plants, via their action on microorganisms, control soil nitrification (i.e., the transformation of ammonium into nitrate). We model how the covariation between plant control of nitrification and preference for ammonium versus nitrate impacts ecosystem properties such as productivity, nitrogen (N) losses, and overall resilience. We show that the control of nitrification can maximize productivity by minimizing total inorganic N losses. We initially predicted that plants with an ammonium preference should achieve the highest biomass when inhibiting nitrification, and conversely that plants preferring nitrate should achieve the highest biomass by stimulating nitrification. With a parametrization derived from the Lamto savanna (Ivory Coast), we find that productivity is maximal for plants that slightly prefer ammonium and inhibit nitrification. Such situations, however, lead to strong positive feedbacks that can cause abrupt shifts from a highly to a lowly productive ecosystem. The comparison with other parameter sets (Pawnee short-grass prairie [United States], intensively cultivated field, and a hypothetical parameter set in which ammonium is highly volatilized and nitrate inputs are high) shows that strategies yielding the highest biomass may be counterintuitive (i.e., preferring nitrate but inhibiting nitrification). We argue that the level of control yielding the highest productivit...

Source: The American Naturalist - March 15, 2024 Category: Biology Authors: Alice Nadia Ardichvili Nicolas Loeuille Jean-Christophe Lata S ébastien Barot Source Type: research