2026-10-09T10:32:51Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33066212 2026-10-05T12:34:14Z category_24235 item_type_3 month_year_10_2026

<b>Unexpected high nitrogen-cycling potential in deep soils driven by microbial life-history strategy</b> Guangcan Yu (19757196) Terrestrial ecology subsoil soil depth nitrogen-cycling genes microbial life-history strategy nitrogen transformation <p dir="ltr">Deep soils contain substantial N pools, yet the magnitude and controls of their N-cycling potential remain poorly understood. We used shotgun metagenomics to quantify N-cycling genes in 174 paired topsoil (0–20 cm) and deep-soil (70–100 cm) samples from 29 forest and grassland profiles across China. Deep forest soils contained 6.7% more N-cycling genes than topsoils, with enrichment of genes for N fixation (+176.3%), ammonia assimilation (+6.4%), nitrification (+58.1%) and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (+15.7%). Grassland deep soils showed little change in gene abundance but higher nitrification (+36.7%) and lower ammonification (−17.0%). Yield-oriented strategy genes increased by 5.8% in deep forest soils and strongly predicted total N-cycling, ammonia-assimilation and DNRA genes. Lower total phosphorus favored N-fixation potential, whereas higher pH favored nitrification. These findings reveal an overlooked mechanism whereby deep-soil high microbial N transformation potential may expand plant access to N beyond topsoil and alleviate ecosystem N limitation.</p> 2026-10-05T12:34:14Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.33066212.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_b_Unexpected_high_nitrogen-cycling_potential_in_deep_soils_driven_by_microbial_life-history_strategy_b_/33066212 CC BY 4.0