Three-dimensional spatial variability in soil microorganisms of nitrification and denitrification at a row-transect scale in a tea field

In this study, three-dimensional (3D) geostatistics was applied at a tea row-transect scale to investigate the spatial distributions of N2O producers (ammonia oxidizers: AOA and AOB, denitrifiers: narG-type and nosZ-type) in a tea field in southern China. Our results showed that most of AOA, AOB, and denitrifiers of narG-type and nosZ-type concentrated in the topsoil at 0–20 cm. Soil depth was found a main factor to influence the spatial distributions of nitrifiers and denitrifiers, which were well-described by a Boltzmann sigmoidal equation with half-maximum coefficients ranging from 7 to 16 cm. Effective spatial ranges for log10-transformed AOA, AOB, and denitrifiers of narG-type and nosZ-type were 50.2 cm, 92.8 cm, 35.6 cm, and 20.4 cm, respectively. The predicted 3D spatial distributions of AOA, AOB, and narG-type denitrifier were smooth, while a patchy distribution along the rhizosphere was observed for nosZ-type denitrifiers.

Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - October 9, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research