Arsenic immobilization and greenhouse gas emission depend on quantity and frequency of nitrogen fertilization in paddy soil
Hanna Grimm,
Soeren Drabesch,
Alan Nicol,
Daniel Straub,
Prachi Joshi,
Christiane Zarfl,
Britta Planer-Friedrich,
E. Marie Muehe,
Andreas Kappler
Affiliations
Hanna Grimm
Geomicrobiology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Soeren Drabesch
Geomicrobiology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Plant Biogeochemistry, Department of Applied Microbial Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; Plant Biogeochemistry, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Alan Nicol
Environmental Geochemistry, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Germany
Daniel Straub
Quantitative Biology Center (QBiC), University of Tübingen, Germany
Prachi Joshi
Geomicrobiology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Christiane Zarfl
Environmental Systems Analysis, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Britta Planer-Friedrich
Environmental Geochemistry, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Germany
E. Marie Muehe
Plant Biogeochemistry, Department of Applied Microbial Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; Plant Biogeochemistry, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Andreas Kappler
Geomicrobiology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Cluster of Excellence: EXC 2124: Controlling Microbes to Fight Infection, Tübingen, Germany; Corresponding author. Geomicrobiology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Nitrogen (N) fertilization in paddy soils decreases arsenic mobility and methane emissions. However, it is unknown how quantity and frequency of N fertilization affects the interlinked redox reactions of iron(II)-driven denitrification, iron mineral (trans-)formation with subsequent arsenic (im-)mobilization, methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and how this links to microbiome composition. Thus, we incubated paddy soil from Vercelli, Italy, over 129 days and applied nitrate fertilizer at different concentrations (control: 0, low: ∼35, medium: ∼100, high: ∼200 mg N kg−1 soil−1) once at the beginning and after 49 days. In the high N treatment, nitrate reduction was coupled to oxidation of dissolved and solid-phase iron(II), while naturally occurring arsenic was retained on iron minerals due to suppression of reductive iron(III) mineral dissolution. In the low N treatment, 40 μg L−1 of arsenic was mobilized into solution after nitrate depletion, with 69 % being immobilized after a second nitrate application. In the non-fertilized control, concentrations of dissolved arsenic were as high as 76 μg L−1, driven by mobilization of 36 % of the initial mineral-bound arsenic. Generally, N fertilization led to 1.5-fold higher total GHG emissions (sum of CO2, CH4 and N2O as CO2 equivalents), 158-fold higher N2O, and 7.5-fold lower CH4 emissions compared to non-fertilization. On day 37, Gallionellaceae, Comamonadaceae and Rhodospirillales were more abundant in the high N treatment compared to the non-fertilized control, indicating their potential role as key players in nitrate reduction coupled to iron(II) oxidation. The findings underscore the dual effect of N fertilization, immobilizing arsenic in the short-term (low/medium N) or long-term (high N), while simultaneously increasing N2O and lowering CH4 emissions. This highlights the significance of both the quantity and frequency of N fertilizer application in paddy soils.
