Increased N2O Production from Soil Organic Matter Following a Simulated Fall-Freeze-Thaw Cycle: Effects of Fall Urea Addition, Soil Moisture, and History of Manure Applications

Increased N2O Production from Soil Organic Matter Following a Simulated Fall-Freeze-Thaw Cycle: Effects of Fall Urea Addition, Soil Moisture, and History of Manure Applications | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Increased N 2 O Production from Soil Organic Matter Following a Simulated Fall-Freeze-Thaw Cycle: Effects of Fall Urea Addition, Soil Moisture, and History of Manure Applications Sisi Lin, Guillermo Hernandez-Ramirez This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Adding nitrogen substrates to soils can induce short-term changes in soil organic matter (SOM) transformations – a response termed the ‘priming effect’. However, it is unknown how priming effects on nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions can be altered following a strong freeze-thaw cycle. A mesocosm experiment evaluated two soil managements: with and without history of manure applications. These soils were subjected to three moisture regimes: Low, Medium and High. Apart from the controls, which received no N, we banded 15 N-labelled urea into these soils representing a typical fall fertilization, and subsequently simulated a wide fall-freeze-thaw cycle, with temperatures from + 2, to -18, and finally + 23°C, respectively. The overall highest N 2 O production was observed 1 day after thawing. At that time, measurements of N 2 O site preference indicated that denitrification produced 83% of the N 2 O flux. Relative to the unamended controls (baseline), adding urea consistently triggered a 24% greater cumulative N 2 O production specifically originated from SOM following thawing (245 vs. 305 µg N 2 O-N kg − 1 soil, P = 0.022). This substantiates a positive priming of SOM that manifested shortly after the rapid, wet thawing of the soils. Soils having a manure history or higher moisture also exhibited an augmented production of N 2 O from SOM ( P s < 0.01). Although the overall priming of SOM was positive, two weeks after thawing, negative priming of daily N 2 O fluxes also occurred, but only in soils under High moisture. Besides urea additions, the propensity for primed N 2 O emissions from SOM after thawing was influenced by increasing moisture and earlier manure applications. General Biochemistry priming effect nitrous oxide organic matter denitrification freeze thaw. Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Full Text Supplementary Files SupplementarydatamesocosmwoCopyghr.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revisions 24 Jun, 2021 Reviews received at journal 25 May, 2021 Reviewers invited by journal 20 May, 2021 Editor invited by journal 20 May, 2021 Editor assigned by journal 20 May, 2021 First submitted to journal 19 May, 2021 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-545397","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":28337177,"identity":"10decbf0-62a7-481f-8062-35cba7c46266","order_by":0,"name":"Sisi Lin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAzklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdsYGBokKBgY+CaK1MAO1WJxhYGADaTlAnBYgrmwjRYt8M3Pbg5vzDsuzSTcf+/yhhkGev4GAFoPDjO2GM7cdNmyTOZY848AxBsMZhKwyYGZsk5bcdpixTSLHmOEAG0MCQdfJNwO1/J1z2L5NIv8zw4F/DAnyBD0EMl+y4XAi0BZmhoNtDAkGBB0G0iJxLD0Z6BdjhrN9EoYbCTqsvf2ZhESNtW2/dPNjhopvNvJyBB2GBohPA6NgFIyCUTAK8AAAVrM82+8zZhcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Alberta","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sisi","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":28337178,"identity":"38ab553a-9e19-4e06-9a65-cebeed437cb1","order_by":1,"name":"Guillermo Hernandez-Ramirez","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Alberta","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guillermo","middleName":"","lastName":"Hernandez-Ramirez","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2021-05-21 03:01:59","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":9557551,"identity":"b35025d5-5a8a-4ab3-96fe-b75d7f87fbd8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:49:57","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":305766,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Daily nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes from soils over the entire experiment. In the case of N2O, fluxes are shown in two separate panels as subsets (a) without and (b) with added urea. Fluxes of CO2 are averaged across all treatment combinations. SW and CT stand for soils with and without a history of manure additions, respectively. Low, Med, and High correspond to moisture regimes where Med stands for Medium. Error bars correspond to one standard error of the mean. ","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/a3bc8c6c6e5ba6ae28588dca.jpeg"},{"id":9558030,"identity":"8cfe3345-3e81-4bf9-b57d-883e0e69d2e7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:52:57","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":247940,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"(a) Cumulative N2O emissions allocated to urea and soil organic matter (SOM) sources, (b) magnitude priming and (c) relative priming caused by urea addition following soil thawing. SW and CT stand for soils with and without a history of manure additions, respectively. Low, Med, and High correspond to moisture regimes where Med stands for Medium. In Panel a, N and C acronyms correspond to the urea-N addition treatment and the zero-N addition (control) treatment, respectively. In Panel a, different letters indicate significant difference in total cumulative N2O (uppercase), SOM-derived N2O (lowercase) and urea-derived (italic) N2O emissions after thawing (P \u003c 0.05). In Panels b and c, N2O primings were respectively shown as magnitudes and also in relative basis as percentages of the total fluxes (shown in Panel a) of soil pots receiving urea. Error bars correspond to one standard error.","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/da09b35fb8f6208fb946e872.jpeg"},{"id":9558438,"identity":"f9c483bb-fa25-4d36-a8b2-eba3c0540fab","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:55:57","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":288141,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Primed daily N2O fluxes following soil thawing. SW and CT stand for soils with and without a history of manure additions, respectively. Low, Med, and High correspond to moisture regimes where Med stands for Medium. Positive and negative primed daily N2O fluxes represent positive and negative priming effects, respectively. Error bars correspond to one standard error of the mean.","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/64db83d6988629353c5f6c99.jpeg"},{"id":9558029,"identity":"44f4ada5-b458-4a51-a074-b38b6517b95d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:52:57","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":210317,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"(a) Magnitude and (b) relative contributions of nitrification and denitrification, as well as (c) site preference for the N2O fluxes emitted 1 day after thawing (Day 57 of the experiment). SW and CT stand for soils with and without a history of manure additions, respectively. Low, Med, and High correspond to moisture regimes where Med stands for Medium. In Panels a and b, numbers in the columns are respectively the flux magnitude and percentage of N2O emissions produced via denitrification or nitrification. Error bars correspond to standard error of the mean.","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/a15ba4a34198dfd3f9752fc8.jpeg"},{"id":9558032,"identity":"a8c7ebe9-d65c-4edf-8741-44649ff0834f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:52:57","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":106981,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Soil (a) ammonium and (b) nitrate concentrations at the end of the experiment for the soils with (SW) and without (CT) history of manure additions at Low, Medium (Med) and High moisture regimes. Horizontal lines (with one standard error) across moisture contents are the concentrations of (a) ammonium and (b) nitrate of the two soils at the beginning of the experiment (prior to urea addition and establishment of the three moisture regimes). Different letters indicate significant differences among treatment combinations (P \u003c 0.05). Error bars correspond to one standard error of the mean. n.s. = not significant.","description":"","filename":"floatimage5.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/851378dd59548c7b3ed16a72.jpeg"},{"id":13636351,"identity":"3bb6fd2e-9028-4637-bfd0-378758ae6c4f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-09-17 08:41:26","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1657839,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MesocosmswithoutfieldcodeCopyghr.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":9558439,"identity":"93e6cfd2-86f6-478b-acd5-599f56fa1d48","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:56:04","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1654378,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MesocosmswithoutfieldcodeCopyghr.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":9558033,"identity":"75bccdba-2b2e-4ef3-9f1c-c633612171ad","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-05-25 14:52:57","extension":"docx","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":110861,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementarydatamesocosmwoCopyghr.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-545397/v1/e0611c6a094247795c2248f9.docx"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eIncreased N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO Production from Soil Organic Matter Following a Simulated Fall-Freeze-Thaw Cycle: Effects of Fall Urea Addition, Soil Moisture, and History of Manure Applications\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"Full Text","content":"This preprint is available for \u003ca href='/article/rs-545397/latest.pdf' target='_blank'\u003edownload as a PDF\u003c/a\u003e."}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"biogeochemistry","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"biog","sideBox":"Learn more about [Biogeochemistry](https://www.springer.com/journal/10533)","snPcode":"10533","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10533/3","title":"Biogeochemistry","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"priming effect, nitrous oxide, organic matter, denitrification, freeze, thaw. ","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAdding nitrogen substrates to soils can induce short-term changes in soil organic matter (SOM) transformations \u0026ndash; a response termed the \u0026lsquo;priming effect\u0026rsquo;. However, it is unknown how priming effects on nitrous oxide (N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO) emissions can be altered following a strong freeze-thaw cycle. A mesocosm experiment evaluated two soil managements: with and without history of manure applications. These soils were subjected to three moisture regimes: Low, Medium and High. Apart from the controls, which received no N, we banded \u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003eN-labelled urea into these soils representing a typical fall fertilization, and subsequently simulated a wide fall-freeze-thaw cycle, with temperatures from +\u0026thinsp;2, to -18, and finally\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;23\u0026deg;C, respectively. The overall highest N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO production was observed 1 day after thawing. At that time, measurements of N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO site preference indicated that denitrification produced 83% of the N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO flux. Relative to the unamended controls (baseline), adding urea consistently triggered a 24% greater cumulative N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO production specifically originated from SOM following thawing (245 vs. 305 \u0026micro;g N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO-N kg\u003csup\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;1\u003c/sup\u003e soil, \u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.022). This substantiates a positive priming of SOM that manifested shortly after the rapid, wet thawing of the soils. Soils having a manure history or higher moisture also exhibited an augmented production of N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO from SOM (\u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003es\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01). Although the overall priming of SOM was positive, two weeks after thawing, negative priming of daily N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO fluxes also occurred, but only in soils under High moisture. Besides urea additions, the propensity for primed N\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO emissions from SOM after thawing was influenced by increasing moisture and earlier manure applications.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Increased N2O Production from Soil Organic Matter Following a Simulated Fall-Freeze-Thaw Cycle: Effects of Fall Urea Addition, Soil Moisture, and History of Manure Applications","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2021-05-25 14:49:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-545397/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Major revisions","date":"2021-06-25T02:11:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2021-05-25T05:50:00+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2021-05-21T01:53:00+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"Biogeochemistry","date":"2021-05-20T09:19:00+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2021-05-20T07:28:00+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Biogeochemistry","date":"2021-05-20T01:55:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"biogeochemistry","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"biog","sideBox":"Learn more about [Biogeochemistry](https://www.springer.com/journal/10533)","snPcode":"10533","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10533/3","title":"Biogeochemistry","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9e89701c-a3ff-4f2f-8d3f-b32bc3b31072","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 25th, 2021","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":4559293,"name":"General Biochemistry"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2021-11-30T09:51:14+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2021-05-25 14:49:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-545397","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-545397","identity":"rs-545397","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"_2-kVJe1T_tPrBINL-cwx","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}