The effect of antecedent soil moisture conditions on soil nitrous oxide and dinitrogen dynamics after wetting: An intact soil core study

Ruminant excreta urinary‑nitrogen (N) deposited onto pasture soil generates inorganic-N concentrations in excess of the pasture's immediate requirements. Consequently, nitrous oxide (N₂O) and dinitrogen (N₂) may be emitted from the urine-affected soil via denitrification. Soil moisture plays a key role in determining the end-product of denitrification. Although the effects of soil moisture and drying-wetting cycles on soil N₂O production have been widely studied using sieved soils in a controlled environment, these experiments may not reflect the actual conditions in the field due to the lack of plant cover and the disturbed soil structure. To address this an experiment was performed using intact soil cores (7.5 cm depth), with pasture plants present, under controlled environmental conditions (20 °C, 8 h of light per day). The ¹⁵N flux method was used to investigate how antecedent soil moisture affected soil N₂O production and consumption in a pasture soil after wetting with a nitrate (NO₃⁻) solution. The results showed that the antecedent dry condition (25 % WFPS, Dp/Do = 0.1783) increased the magnitude of the N2O flux peak after the soil was wetted (75 % WFPS, Dp/Do = 0.006) when compared to antecedent wet conditions (50 % WFPS, Dp/Do = 0.0503). There were no differences in the denitrification and nitrification related functional gene abundances between the two antecedent conditions post-wetting, indicating that the effect was not regulated by microbial changes but by the intensity of the “Birch effect” induced by soil wetting. The N₂O reduction related gene (nosZII) abundance decreased after wetting with the NO₃⁻ solution, indicating a suppression effect on N₂O consumption from the NO₃⁻ applied that overrode the potential “Birch effect” on N₂ emission. The results of the study indicate that rewetting of antecedent dry soil increase N₂O emissions but not N₂ emissions when the soil NO₃⁻ concentration is high.