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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #353106
Title: Soil net nitrogen mineralisation across global grasslands

Author
item RISCH, A - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item ZIMMERMANN, S - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item OCHOA-HUESO, R - University Of Cadiz
item SCHUTZ, M - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item FREY, B - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item FIRN, J - Queensland University Of Technology
item Fay, Philip
item HAGEDORN, F - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl
item BORER, E - University Of Minnesota
item SEABLOOM, E - University Of Minnesota
item HARPOLE, W - Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research
item KNOPS, J - University Of Nebraska
item MCCULLEY, R - University Of Kentucky
item BROADBENT, A - University Of Manchester
item STEVENS, C - Lancaster University
item SILVEIRA, M - University Of Florida
item ADLER, P - Utah State University
item BAEZ, S - National Polytechnic School Of Ecuador
item BIEDERMAN, L - Iowa State University
item BLAIR, J - Kansas State University
item BROWN, C - Colorado State University
item CALDEIRA, M - Universidade Nova De Lisboa
item COLLINS, S - University Of New Mexico
item DALEO, P - Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas(CONICET)
item DI VIRGILIO, A - Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas(CONICET)
item EBELING, A - University Of Jena
item EISENHAUER, N - Leipzig University
item ESCH, E - University Of California
item ESKELINEN, A - University Of Oulu
item HAGENAH, N - University Of Pretoria
item HAUTIER, Y - Utrecht University
item KIRKMAN, K - University Of Kwazulu-Natal
item MACDOUGALL, A - University Of Guelph
item MOORE, J - Monash University
item POWER, S - Western Sydney University
item PROBER, S - Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
item ROSCHER, C - Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research
item SANKARAN, M - University Of Leeds
item SIEBERT, J - Leipzig University
item SPEZIALE, K - Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas(CONICET)
item TOGNETTI, P - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item VIRTANEN, R - University Of Oulu
item YAHDJIAN, L - Universidad De Buenos Aires
item MOSER, B - Swiss Federal Research Institute Wsl

Submitted to: Nature Communications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/10/2019
Publication Date: 10/31/2019
Citation: Risch, A.C., Zimmermann, S., Ochoa-Hueso, R., Schütz, M., Frey, B., Firn, J.L., Fay, P.A., Hagedorn, F., Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W., Harpole, W.S., Knops, J.M.H., McCulley, R.L., Broadbent, A.A.D., Stevens, C.J., Silveira, M.L., Adler, P.B., Báez, S., Biederman, L.A., Blair, J.M., Brown, C.S., Caldeira, M.C., Collins, S.L., Daleo, P., di Virgilio, A., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Esch, E., Eskelinen, A., Hagenah, N., Hautier, Y., Kirkman, K.P., MacDougall, A.S., Moore, J.L., Power, S.A., Prober, S.M., Roscher, C., Sankaran, M., Siebert, J., Speziale, K.L., Tognetti, P.M., Virtanen, R., Yahdjian, L., Moser, B. 2019. Soil net nitrogen mineralisation across global grasslands. Nature Communications. 10(4981):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12948-2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12948-2

Interpretive Summary: The availability of nitrogen in ecosystems often determines their ability to provide ecosystem services critical to human well-being, the integrity of wild and agricultural ecosystems, and climate regulation, such as food and fiber, hydrologic regulation, and carbon sequestration. The availability of nitrogen needed in ecosystem processes is strongly affected by climate, soils, and biological properties of ecosystems, and therefore will be strongly influenced by human activities. Understanding the controls on nitrogen availability on a world-wide basis is crucial for understanding the effects of human activities on nitrogen availability, mitigating deleterious effects, and maintaining beneficial ones. Current understanding is based on laboratory measurements of nitrogen availability, which may not accurately represent actual availability. We compared laboratory and field measurements of nitrogen availability in soils from 30 grasslands spread across six continents, and found that while laboratory measurements of soil nitrogen availability by themselves poorly predicted field availability in these grasslands, but by accounting for soil properties and climate, laboratory measurements could make good predictions of field nitrogen availability. This finding is an important step toward a better understanding of the processes in ecosystems that maintain healthy wild and agricultural ecosystems.

Technical Abstract: Nitrogen (N) availability is an important driver of ecosystem productivity and the carbon (C) cycle of grassland ecosystems worldwide. The conversion of organic N into its inorganic form (soil net N mineralisation, hereafter soil net Nmin) is controlled by physical, chemical, biological properties, and climatic variables and therefore is strongly influenced by global change. Current continental or global-scale assessments of soil net Nmin are based on laboratory measurements (ex-situ), but no information is available about soil net Nmin under field conditions (in-situ). Here we compare global patterns in and the controls of in-situ and ex-situ soil net Nmin and examine the relationship between the two for grassland ecosystems worldwide. Both in-situ and ex-situ soil net Nmin measures were, against our expectations, equally related to local-site climatic conditions and soil properties, but prediction of in-situ based on ex-situ measures alone were poor. Yet, by adding easily obtainable field measures in combination with global climate data to the model, in-situ soil net Nmin can be estimated well. Accurately estimating in-situ soil net Nmin is crucial as any errors could strongly affect our predictions of global change driven impacts N availability and therefore C cycling.