title: Changes in land use driven by urbanization impact nitrogen cycling and the microbial community composition in soils.
abstract: Transition of populations from rural to urban living causes landscape changes and alters the functionality of soil ecosystems. It is unclear how this urbanization disturbs the microbial ecology of soils and how the disruption influences nitrogen cycling. In this study, microbial communities in turfgrass-grown soils from urban and suburban areas around Xiamen City were compared to microbial communities in the soils from rural farmlands. The potential N2O emissions, potential denitrification activity, and abundances of denitrifiers were higher in the rural farmland soils compared with the turfgrass soils. Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) were more abundant than ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in turfgrass soils. Within turfgrass soils, the potential nitrification activities and AOA abundances were higher in the urban than in the suburban soils. These results indicate a more pivotal role of AOA in nitrification, especially in urban soils. Microbial community composition was distinctly grouped along urbanization categories (urban, suburban, and rural) classified according to the population density, which can in part be attributed to the differences in soil properties. These observed changes could potentially have a broader impact on soil nutrient availability and greenhouse gas emissions.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.|Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.|Department of Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.affiliation: School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
authors.forename: Minying
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
authors.forename: Huijuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
authors.forename: Tianling
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D058458:Nitrogen Cycle; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014507:Urbanization
chemical_list: D012987:Soil