A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm
Abstract The paradigm that permafrost-affected soils show restricted mineral nitrogen (N) cycling in favor of organic N compounds is based on the observation that net N mineralization rates in these cold climates are negligible. However, we find here that this perception is wrong. By synthesizing pu...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e/pdf |
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crioppubl:10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e 2024-09-09T19:27:59+00:00 A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm Ramm, Elisabeth Liu, Chunyan Ambus, Per Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus Hu, Bin Martikainen, Pertti J Marushchak, Maija E Mueller, Carsten W Rennenberg, Heinz Schloter, Michael Siljanen, Henri M P Voigt, Carolina Werner, Christian Biasi, Christina Dannenmann, Michael National Natural Science Foundation of China Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e/pdf unknown IOP Publishing http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining Environmental Research Letters volume 17, issue 1, page 013004 ISSN 1748-9326 journal-article 2022 crioppubl https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e 2024-08-12T04:14:25Z Abstract The paradigm that permafrost-affected soils show restricted mineral nitrogen (N) cycling in favor of organic N compounds is based on the observation that net N mineralization rates in these cold climates are negligible. However, we find here that this perception is wrong. By synthesizing published data on N cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost ecosystems we show that gross ammonification and nitrification rates in active layers were of similar magnitude and showed a similar dependence on soil organic carbon (C) and total N concentrations as observed in temperate and tropical systems. Moreover, high protein depolymerization rates and only marginal effects of C:N stoichiometry on gross N turnover provided little evidence for N limitation. Instead, the rather short period when soils are not frozen is the single main factor limiting N turnover. High gross rates of mineral N cycling are thus facilitated by released protection of organic matter in active layers with nitrification gaining particular importance in N-rich soils, such as organic soils without vegetation. Our finding that permafrost-affected soils show vigorous N cycling activity is confirmed by the rich functional microbial community which can be found both in active and permafrost layers. The high rates of N cycling and soil N availability are supported by biological N fixation, while atmospheric N deposition in the Arctic still is marginal except for fire-affected areas. In line with high soil mineral N production, recent plant physiological research indicates a higher importance of mineral plant N nutrition than previously thought. Our synthesis shows that mineral N production and turnover rates in active layers of permafrost-affected soils do not generally differ from those observed in temperate or tropical soils. We therefore suggest to adjust the permafrost N cycle paradigm, assigning a generally important role to mineral N cycling. This new paradigm suggests larger permafrost N climate feedbacks than assumed previously. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic permafrost IOP Publishing Arctic Environmental Research Letters 17 1 013004 |
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IOP Publishing |
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Abstract The paradigm that permafrost-affected soils show restricted mineral nitrogen (N) cycling in favor of organic N compounds is based on the observation that net N mineralization rates in these cold climates are negligible. However, we find here that this perception is wrong. By synthesizing published data on N cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost ecosystems we show that gross ammonification and nitrification rates in active layers were of similar magnitude and showed a similar dependence on soil organic carbon (C) and total N concentrations as observed in temperate and tropical systems. Moreover, high protein depolymerization rates and only marginal effects of C:N stoichiometry on gross N turnover provided little evidence for N limitation. Instead, the rather short period when soils are not frozen is the single main factor limiting N turnover. High gross rates of mineral N cycling are thus facilitated by released protection of organic matter in active layers with nitrification gaining particular importance in N-rich soils, such as organic soils without vegetation. Our finding that permafrost-affected soils show vigorous N cycling activity is confirmed by the rich functional microbial community which can be found both in active and permafrost layers. The high rates of N cycling and soil N availability are supported by biological N fixation, while atmospheric N deposition in the Arctic still is marginal except for fire-affected areas. In line with high soil mineral N production, recent plant physiological research indicates a higher importance of mineral plant N nutrition than previously thought. Our synthesis shows that mineral N production and turnover rates in active layers of permafrost-affected soils do not generally differ from those observed in temperate or tropical soils. We therefore suggest to adjust the permafrost N cycle paradigm, assigning a generally important role to mineral N cycling. This new paradigm suggests larger permafrost N climate feedbacks than assumed previously. |
author2 |
National Natural Science Foundation of China Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ramm, Elisabeth Liu, Chunyan Ambus, Per Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus Hu, Bin Martikainen, Pertti J Marushchak, Maija E Mueller, Carsten W Rennenberg, Heinz Schloter, Michael Siljanen, Henri M P Voigt, Carolina Werner, Christian Biasi, Christina Dannenmann, Michael |
spellingShingle |
Ramm, Elisabeth Liu, Chunyan Ambus, Per Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus Hu, Bin Martikainen, Pertti J Marushchak, Maija E Mueller, Carsten W Rennenberg, Heinz Schloter, Michael Siljanen, Henri M P Voigt, Carolina Werner, Christian Biasi, Christina Dannenmann, Michael A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
author_facet |
Ramm, Elisabeth Liu, Chunyan Ambus, Per Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus Hu, Bin Martikainen, Pertti J Marushchak, Maija E Mueller, Carsten W Rennenberg, Heinz Schloter, Michael Siljanen, Henri M P Voigt, Carolina Werner, Christian Biasi, Christina Dannenmann, Michael |
author_sort |
Ramm, Elisabeth |
title |
A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
title_short |
A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
title_full |
A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
title_fullStr |
A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
title_full_unstemmed |
A review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
title_sort |
review of the importance of mineral nitrogen cycling in the plant-soil-microbe system of permafrost-affected soils—changing the paradigm |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e/pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters volume 17, issue 1, page 013004 ISSN 1748-9326 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/text-and-data-mining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac417e |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
013004 |
_version_ |
1809897295862300672 |