Soil type determines the abundance and community structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea in flooded paddy soils

Abstract

Purpose: Ammonia oxidation plays an important role in global nitrogen cycle. However, little information is available on ammonia oxidizers in paddy soils. This study aimed to understand the controlling factors of ammonia oxidizers in the paddy soils. Materials and methods: Three types of paddy soils were collected from southwest [Chongqing City (CQ)], central [Honghu City (HH)], and northeast [Panjin City (PJ)] of China, respectively. The soils were cultured with unplanted and rice-planted pot experiments for 10 weeks. The abundance and composition of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) of the paddy soil samples were investigated by real-time polymerase chain..