Journal article
Reconnaissance of Oxygenic Denitrifiers in Agriculturally Impacted Soils
mSphere, Vol.8(3), e00571-22
06/2023
DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00571-22
PMCID: PMC10286720
PMID: 37017537
Abstract
Row crop production in the agricultural Midwest pollutes waterways with nitrate, and exacerbates climate change through increased emissions of nitrous oxide and methane. Oxygenic denitrification processes in agricultural soils mitigate nitrate and nitrous oxide pollution by short-circuiting the canonical pathway to avoid nitrous oxide formation. Furthermore, many oxygenic denitrifiers employ a nitric oxide dismutase (
) to create molecular oxygen that is used by methane monooxygenase to oxidize methane in otherwise anoxic soils. The direct investigation of
genes that could facilitate oxygenic denitrification processes in agricultural sites is limited, with no prior studies investigating
genes at tile drainage sites. Thus, we performed a reconnaissance of
genes at variably saturated surface sites, and within a variably to fully saturated soil core in Iowa to expand the known distribution of oxygenic denitrifiers. We identified new
gene sequences from agricultural soil and freshwater sediments in addition to identifying nitric oxide reductase (qNor) related sequences. Surface and variably saturated core samples displayed a
to 16S rRNA gene relative abundance of 0.004% to 0.1% and fully saturated core samples had relative
gene abundance of 1.2%. The relative abundance of the phylum
increased from 0.6% and 1% in the variably saturated core samples to 3.8% and 5.3% in the fully saturated core samples. The more than 10-fold increase in relative
abundance and almost 9-fold increase in relative
abundance in fully saturated soils suggests that potential oxygenic denitrifiers play a greater nitrogen cycling role under these conditions.
The direct investigation of
genes in agricultural sites is limited, with no prior studies investigating
genes at tile drains. An improved understanding of
gene diversity and distribution is significant to the field of bioremediation and ecosystem services. The expansion of the
gene database will advance oxygenic denitrification as a potential strategy for sustainable nitrate and nitrous oxide mitigation, specifically for agricultural sites.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reconnaissance of Oxygenic Denitrifiers in Agriculturally Impacted Soils
- Creators
- Emily V Schmitz - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 4105 Seamans Center, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USACraig L Just - University of IowaKeith Schilling - University of IowaMatthew Streeter - University of IowaTimothy E Mattes - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- mSphere, Vol.8(3), e00571-22
- DOI
- 10.1128/msphere.00571-22
- PMID
- 37017537
- PMCID
- PMC10286720
- NLM abbreviation
- mSphere
- ISSN
- 2379-5042
- eISSN
- 2379-5042
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: National Science Foundation, award: 1802583; DOI: 10.13039/100000139, name: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, award: 00D888019
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 04/05/2023
- Date published
- 06/2023
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Earth and Environmental Sciences; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984385055502771
Metrics
53 Record Views