Thermodynamic sensitivity of ammonia oxidizers-driven N2O fluxes under oxic-suboxic realms

In terrestrial ecosystems, the nitrogen dynamics, including N2O production, are majorly regulated by a complex consortium of microbes favored by different substrates and environmental conditions. To better predict the daily, seasonal and annual variation in N2O fluxes, it is critical to estimate the temperature sensitivity of different microbial groups for N2O fluxes under oxic and suboxic conditions prevalent in soil and wetlands. Here, we studied the temperature sensitivity of two groups of ammonia oxidizers, archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), in relation to N2O fluxes through both nitrification and nitrifier-denitrification pathways across a wide temperature gradient (10–55 °C). Using square root theory (SQRT) and macromolecular rate theory (MMRT) models, we estimated thermodynamic parameters and cardinal temperatures, including maximum temperature sensitivity (TSmax). The distinction between N2O pathways was facilitated by microbial-specific inhibitors (PTIO and C2H2) and controlled oxygen supply environments (oxic: ambient level; and suboxic: ∼4). We found that nitrification supported by AOA (NtA) and AOB (NtB) dominated N2O production in an oxic climate, while only AOB-supported nitrifier-denitrification (NDB) majorly contributed (>90) to suboxic N2O budget. The models predicted significantly higher optimum temperature (Topt) and TSmax for NtA and NDB compared to NtB. Intriguingly, both NtB and NDB exhibited significantly wider temperature ranges than NtA. Altogether, our results suggest that temperature and oxygen supply control the dominance of specific AOA- and AOB-supported N2O pathways in soil and sediments. This emergent understanding can potentially contribute toward novel targeted N2O inhibitors for GHG mitigation under global warming.