Divergent responses of carbon and nitrogen functional genes composition to enhanced rock weathering
Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a scalable strategy for atmospheric carbon dioxide removal. The microbiome function critically regulates the below-ground cycle of carbon and nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems. However, microbial functioning related to carbon and nitrogen under ERW remains elusive. Here we investigated how wollastonite addition affects key microbial carbon and nitrogen-cycles genes investigated using metagenomic, in a tropic rubber plantation. After two-year, ERW had enhanced the alpha diversity of biogeochemical cycling genes was mainly driven by increased soil pH. ERW led to an increase in the relative abundance of carbon-fixation genes, and a decrease in the carbon-degradation genes, providing microbiological evidence for carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, the relative abundance of nitrogen-cycling functional genes, and available iron increased after wollastonite addition, indicating ERW may influence nitrous oxide emissions through biological and chemical processes. Altogether, our results illustrate how the effect of ERW alters microbial functioning, impacting soil organic matter dynamics. Enhanced rock weathering alters ecosystem functions, particularly carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, by changing microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling genes, according to a two-year wollastonite addition manipulation experiment in a trophic rubber plantation in China.
Authors
- Guochen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0743-8692)
- Yunting Fang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7531-546X)
- Zhanqing Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2875-6419)
- Mardin O. Abdalqadir (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1287-3549)
- Boyuan Bi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4996-1115)
- Zhenxin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6016-5972)
- Daniel S. Goll (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9246-9671)
- Yanlong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8657-5590)
- Chenlu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5330-2764)
- Xianjin He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5573-607X)
- Tongtong Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0239-1167)
- Qiong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-3986)
- Zuoqiang Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5448-3162)
- Xiulian Ma
Institutions
- Tibet University (CN)
- Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology (CN)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Institute of Applied Ecology (CN)
- Digital Science (United States) (US)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- Teesside University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2025-08-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02455-2
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Arsenic contamination and mitigation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.58
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Shaanxi Province
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province