Potential nitrification activity reflects ammonia oxidising bacteria but not archaea activity across a soil-sediment gradient

Tatti, E., Duff, A., Kostrysia, A., Cholet, F., Ijaz, U. and Smith, C. (2022) Potential nitrification activity reflects ammonia oxidising bacteria but not archaea activity across a soil-sediment gradient. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 264, 107666. (doi: 10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107666)

Abstract

Terrestrial-marine ecosystems have important ecologically relevant roles influencing the retention and mobility of nitrogen entering coastal ecosystems. The sharp physico-chemical gradients represent an ideal environment to elucidate the relative contributions of ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) to the nitrification process. Here we examined the activity of ammonia oxidisers (AO) across two coastal bays soil-sediment gradients to explore the functional shift from AOA to AOB, and determine if transcriptional activity within the environment (in situ) was emulated in laboratory potential nitrification activity incubations. To do this gene and transcripts abundance and diversity were measured along with potential nitrification activity (PNA) and recovery nitrification potential (RNP) from a series of soil, interface and sediment sites. We compared the composition of amoA transcript community structure in situ vs. PNA/RNP to see if the active AOA and AOB were similar in the environment and in the laboratory experiments. AOA was dominant at gene and transcript level in soil and interphase sites, but active transcripts in situ did not match those within the PNA/RNP assays. AOB was dominant at gene and transcript level in sediments and here transcripts in situ and within the PNA/RNP were similar. A high correlation between AOB transcripts and PNA in sediments was observed but a negative correlation for AOA in soils was seen. Our data indicates that while the PNA/RNP may be a good proxy for AOB activity in these sediments, it was not for AOA dominated soil due to unfavorable incubation conditions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Duff, Dr Aoife and Smith, Professor Cindy and Cholet, Dr Fabien and Ijaz, Dr Umer
• Authors: Tatti, E., Duff, A., Kostrysia, A., Cholet, F., Ijaz, U., and Smith, C.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment
• Journal Name: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0272-7714
• ISSN (Online): 1096-0015
• Published Online: 20 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd.
• First Published: First published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 264: 107666
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
170256		Understanding microbial community through in situ environmental 'omic data synthesis	Umer Zeeshan Ijaz	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)	NE/L011956/1	ENG - Infrastructure & Environment