Simplification of soil biota communities impairs nutrient recycling and enhances above‐ and belowground nitrogen losses

Abstract

Summary Agriculture is a major source of nutrient pollution, posing a threat to the earth system functioning. Factors determining the nutrient use efficiency of plant–soil systems need to be identified to develop strategies to reduce nutrient losses while ensuring crop productivity. The potential of soil biota to tighten nutrient cycles by improving plant nutrition and reducing soil nutrient losses is still poorly understood. We manipulated soil biota communities in outdoor lysimeters, planted maize, continuously collected leachates, and measured N2O‐ and N2‐gas emissions after a fertilization pulse to test whether differences in soil biota communities affected nutrient recycling and N losses. Lysimeters with strongly simplified soil biota communities showed reduced crop N (−20%) and P (−58%) uptake, strongly increased N leaching losses (+65%), and gaseous emissions (+97%) of N2O and N2. Soil metagenomic analyses revealed differences in the abundance of genes responsible for nutrient uptake, nitrate reduction, and denitrification that helped explain the observed nutrient losses. Soil biota are major drivers of nutrient cycling and reductions in the diversity or abundance of certain groups (e.g. through land‐use intensification) can disrupt nutrient cycling, reduce agricultural productivity and nutrient use efficiency, and exacerbate environmental pollution and global warming.