Data · dataset · 2026
<b>Unexpected high nitrogen-cycling potential in deep soils driven by microbial life-history strategy</b>
Listed in NCL Data
<p dir="ltr">Deep soils contain substantial N pools, yet the magnitude and controls of their N-cycling potential remain poorly understood.
Description
We used shotgun metagenomics to quantify N-cycling genes in 174 paired topsoil (0–20 cm) and deep-soil (70–100 cm) samples from 29 forest and grassland profiles across China. Deep forest soils contained 6.7% more N-cycling genes than topsoils, with enrichment of genes for N fixation (+176.3%), ammonia assimilation (+6.4%), nitrification (+58.1%) and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (+15.7%).
Grassland deep soils showed little change in gene abundance but higher nitrification (+36.7%) and lower ammonification (−17.0%). Yield-oriented strategy genes increased by 5.8% in deep forest soils and strongly predicted total N-cycling, ammonia-assimilation and DNRA genes. Lower total phosphorus favored N-fixation potential, whereas higher pH favored nitrification.
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These findings reveal an overlooked mechanism whereby deep-soil high microbial N transformation potential may expand plant access to N beyond topsoil and alleviate ecosystem N limitation.</p>
Links
Where it is published
- DOI doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.33066212.v1 ↗
DOI / persistent id · from data ncl ac uk
Catalogue records · 1
- OAI-PMH record api.figshare.com/v2/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai%3Af… ↗
metadata API · from data ncl ac uk
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Humanities · Life Sciences · Terrestrial ecology
Provenance · 1 source records, 9 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCL Data | oai:figshare.com:article/33066212 | 4 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].anzsrc:field:310308 | mapping · data ncl ac uk | vocabulary-mapper@1.0.0 | keywords['Terrestrial ecology'] |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:humanities | mapping · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:life-sciences | mapping · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | /metadata/dc/description |
| license | source · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | /metadata/dc/rights |
| publication_date | source · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ncl ac uk | connector:data_ncl_ac_uk@1.0.0 | /metadata/dc/title |