The amount, but not the proportion, of N₂ fixation and transfers to neighboring plants varies across grassland soils

ABSTRACT

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an important nitrogen source for both N₂-fixers and their neighboring plants in natural and managed ecosystems. Biological N fixation can vary considerably depending on soil conditions, yet there is a lack of knowledge on the impact of varying soils on the contribution of N from N₂-fixers in mixed swards. In this study, the amount and proportion of BNF from red clover were assessed using three grassland soils. Three soil samples, Hallsworth (HH), Crediton (CN), and Halstow (HW) series, were collected from three grassland sites in Devon, UK. A pot experiment with ¹⁵N natural abundance was conducted to estimate BNF from red clover, and the proportion of N transferred from red clover to the non-N₂ fixing grass in a grass-clover system. The results showed that BNF in red clover sourced from atmosphere in the HH soil was 2.92 mg N plant⁻¹, which was significantly lower than that of the CN (6.18 mg N plant⁻¹) and HW (8.01 mg N plant⁻¹) soils. Nitrogen in grass sourced from BNF via belowground was 0.46 mg N plant⁻¹ in the HH soil, which was significantly greater than that in CN and HW soils. However, proportionally there were no significant differences in the percentage N content of both red clover and grass sourced from BNF via belowground among soils, at 65%, 67%, 65% and 35%, 27%, 31% in HH, CN, and HW, respectively. Our observations indicate that the amount of BNF by red clover varies among grassland soils, as does the amount of N sourced from BNF that is transferred to neighboring plants, which is linked to biomass production. Proportionally there was no difference among soils in N sourced from BNF in both the red clover plants and transferred to neighboring plants.

KEY WORDS:

• Biological nitrogen fixation
• soil characteristics
• red clover
• nitrogen transfer
• intercropping
• grassland

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following grants: the Newton Fund through the UK-China Virtual Joint Centre for Improved Nitrogen Agronomy [CINAg, BB/N013468/1]; as part of Rothamsted Research’s Institute Strategic Programme – Soil to Nutrition [BB/PO1268X/1] funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41771330, 41401339] and of Fujian Province [2018J01058, 2019J01104, 2019J01105]; the public welfare project of Fujian Province [2019R1025-1]; the project of China Scholarship Council, the project of China Scholarship Council [201809350003], and Foundation of Fujian Academic of Agricultural Sciences [YC2015-6, AB2017-2, SIIT2017-1-9]. We gratefully acknowledge the advice and support given by Dr. William Burchill on the experimental procedures presented here, and that of Liz Dixon in the laboratory analyses.