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 and Shuijin Hu ()
Additional contact information
Yunpeng Qiu: Nanjing Agricultural University
Yi Zhang: Nanjing Agricultural University
Kangcheng Zhang: Nanjing Agricultural University
Xinyu Xu: Nanjing Agricultural University
Yunfeng Zhao: Nanjing Agricultural University
Tongshuo Bai: Nanjing Agricultural University
Yexin Zhao: Nanjing Agricultural University
Hao Wang: Nanjing Agricultural University
Xiongjie Sheng: Nanjing Agricultural University
Sean Bloszies: North Carolina State University
Christopher J. Gillespie: North Carolina State University
Tangqing He: Nanjing Agricultural University
Yang Wang: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Huaihai Chen: School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen
Lijin Guo: College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University
He Song: Anhui Agricultural University
Chenglong Ye: Nanjing Agricultural University
Yi Wang: Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Alex Woodley: North Carolina State University
Jingheng Guo: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University
Lei Cheng: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University
Yongfei Bai: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yongguan Zhu: Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Sara Hallin: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Mary K. Firestone: Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley
Shuijin Hu: North Carolina State University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46931-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-46931-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46931-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().