Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea Play a Predominant Role in Acid Soil Nitrification

Abstract

Acid soils, extensively used for nitrogen-fertilized agriculture and agroforestry, have important roles in maintaining global biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem functions. Huge inputs of nitrogen-based fertilizers into terrestrial ecosystems accelerate soil acidification, concomitantly altering the nitrogen transformation processes. Nitrification, as a critical component of the nitrogen cycle, is a microbially mediated process from ammonia to nitrate via nitrite, contributing to enormous losses of fertilizers through atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gas N2O and nitrate leaching to groundwater. However, the functionally dominant nitrifiers and underlying mechanisms for the acid soil nitr..