Ecosystem-specific selection of microbial ammonia oxidizers in an acid soil

Abstract. The function of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) depends on the availability of ammonia substrate and the supply of oxygen. The interactions and evolutions of AOA and AOB communities along ecological gradients of substrate availability in complex environment have been much debated, but rarely tested. In this study, two ecosystems of maize and rice crops under different fertilization regimes were selected to investigate the community diversification of soil AOA and AOB in response to long-term field fertilization and flooding management in an acid soil. Real-time quantitative PCR of amoA genes demonstrated that the abundance of AOA was significantly stimulated after conversion of upland to paddy soils, while slight decline of AOB populations was observed. DGGE fingerprints of amoA genes further revealed remarkable changes in community compositions of AOA in paddy soil when compared to upland soil. Sequencing analysis revealed that upland soil was dominated by AOA within the soil group 1.1b lineage, while the marine group 1.1a lineage predominated AOA communities in paddy soils. Irrespective of upland and paddy soils, long-term field fertilizations led to higher abundance of amoA genes of AOA and AOB than control treatment that received no fertilization, whereas archaeal amoA gene abundances outnumbered their bacterial counterpart in all samples. Phylogenetic analyses of amoA genes showed that Nitrosospira cluster 3-like AOB dominated bacterial ammonia oxidizers in both paddy and upland soils, regardless of fertilization treatments. The results of this study suggest that the marine group 1.1a AOA could be better adapted to low-oxygen environment than AOA ecotypes of the soil group 1.1b lineage, and implicate that long-term flooding as the dominant selective force driving the community diversification of AOA populations in the acid soil tested.