Mapping N deposition impacts on soil microbial biomass across global terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract

Soil microorganisms are key for biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Recent meta-analyses based on nitrogen (N) addition experiments reported an overall negative impact of elevated N on soil microbial biomass on a global scale. However, individual studies have reported divergent effects of N addition, ranging from strongly negative to even positive. Moreover, N deposition varies temporally and spatially worldwide. It remains uncertain how the effects of N deposition on soil microbial biomass vary across global terrestrial ecosystems over time. Through the synthesis of 374 N addition experiments across six continents, we revealed that low quantities of N increased the soil microbial biomass, but high N amounts strongly reduced it. Moreover, the N addition effects were strongly contingent on the ecosystem type, being highly negative in grasslands (−19.3 ± 6.2%, mean and 95% confidence intervals), negative in forests (−8.6 ± 4.2%), and positive in croplands (15.1 ± 12.3%). Further, the soil microbial biomass was most negatively affected by N addition in acidic soils. By combining our meta-analysis results from N addition experiments and global N deposition data, we revealed that the global soil microbial biomass increased by 10.0% in response to cumulative N deposition from 2000–2020. However, regions encompassing the Eastern U.S., Southern Brazil, Europe, and Eastern Asia, with high N deposition rates and large forested areas of acidic soils, were hotspots for microbial biomass loss. Our findings challenge the long-held notion that N deposition has universal negative impacts on soil microbial biomass. Instead, we show that the N deposition impacts on soil microbial biomass are dependent on the amounts of elevated N, ecosystem type, and soil pH, for which N-deposition-induced soil acidification acts as an internal mechanism.

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