Wide-spread limitation of soil organic nitrogen transformations by substrate availability and not by extracellular enzyme content.

ABSTRACT: Proteins constitute the single largest soil organic nitrogen (SON) reservoir and its decomposition drives terrestrial N availability. Protein cleavage by extracellular enzymes is the rate limiting step in the soil organic N cycle and can be controlled by extracellular enzyme production or protein availability/stabilization in soil. Both controls can be affected by geology and land use, as well as be vulnerable to changes in soil temperature and moisture/O₂. To explore major controls of soil gross protein depolymerization we sampled six soils from two soil parent materials (calcareous and silicate), where each soil type included three land uses (cropland, pasture and forest). Soil samples were subjected to three temperature treatments (5, 15, 25 °C at 60% water-holding capacity (

SUBMITTER: Noll L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6774789 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature