Different land use intensities in grassland ecosystems drive ecology of microbial communities involved in nitrogen turnover in soil.

ABSTRACT: Understanding factors driving the ecology of N cycling microbial communities is of central importance for sustainable land use. In this study we report changes of abundance of denitrifiers, nitrifiers and nitrogen-fixing microorganisms (based on qPCR data for selected functional genes) in response to different land use intensity levels and the consequences for potential turnover rates. We investigated selected grassland sites being comparable with respect to soil type and climatic conditions, which have been continuously treated for many years as intensely used meadows (IM), intensely used mown pastures (IP) and extensively used pastures (EP), respectively. The obtained data were linked to above ground biodiversity pattern as well as water extractable fractions of nitrogen and carbon in so

SUBMITTER: Meyer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3765351 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature