Impacts of long-term nitrogen addition, watering and mowing on ammonia oxidizers, denitrifiers and plant communities in a temperate steppe

Abstract

Global changes in nitrogen (N) deposition, precipitation patterns and land use could have an impact on the biogeochemical N cycle mediated by microorganisms. Microbial responses to global changes have been generally evaluated in short-term studies, while the long-term effects are not well understood. In this study, the interactive effects of multiple global change factors on N-cycling microorganisms and their interactions with plants were investigated in a 9-year field experiment with N addition, watering and mowing in a temperate steppe in northern China. Quantitative PCR, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and clone library were used to analyze the abundance and com..