ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1596515
This article is part of the Research TopicBiogeochemical Processes of Nutrients: Impacts of Global Changes and Human Activities on Microbial Communities in Terrestrial EcosystemsView all articles
High plant diversity alleviates the negative effects of nitrogen deposition on soil nitrogen cycling multifunctionality
Provisionally accepted
- 1Anshan Normal University, Anshan, Liaoning Province, China
- 2School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
- 3University of Zurich, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Changes in plant diversity and increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition independently influence soil nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the interactive effects of plant diversity and nitrogen deposition on soil nitrogen cycling multifunctionality (NCMF) in grassland ecosystems remain poorly understood. We conducted a fully factorial microcosm experiment to quantify the responses and underlying mechanism of soil NCMF to nitrogen addition (0, 5, and 10 g N m -2 yr -1 ) and plant diversity gradients (1, 3, and 6 species). Our results revealed a significant interactive effect between plant diversity and nitrogen addition on soil NCMF. Specifically, high plant diversity alleviated the negative effects of nitrogen addition on soil NCMF. The addition of nitrogen reduced the soil pH, which imposed microbial stress by limiting carbon availability. In contrast, higher plant diversity increased soil organic matter via below-ground carbon inputs, thereby reducing the soil carbon limitation of microorganims and enhancing the soil NCMF. Overall, our findings suggest that maintaining or enhancing plant diversity in grasslands could be a key strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on soil nitrogen cycling, highlighting the crucial role of plant diversity in regulating ecosystem nutrient cycling under global change.
Keywords: nitrogen deposition, plant diversity, soil microbial carbon limitation, soil nitrogen cycling multifunctionality, global change
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Liu, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Wagg and Xing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Fu Xing, School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
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