Nitrogen utilization pathways of soil microorganisms

• Applicant: Dr. Daniel Geisseler
• Subject Area: Soil Sciences
• Term: from 2011 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 185017492

When organic material is available, soil microorganisms may either take up simple organic molecules directly and release the surplus nitrogen (N) into the soil in the form of ammonium (NH4+), or they may mineralize organic N first and take it up in the form of NH4+. The route of N uptake has implications for the competition for N between microorganisms and plants and therefore for the N nutrition of crops. The objective of the proposed study is to gain a better understanding of the factors controlling the relative importance of the two N utilization routes by soil microorganisms. In a first step, an assay to determine the extent of the extracellular deamination of amino acids in soil shall be developed and tested. In a second step, the new assay shall be applied in laboratory incubations in combination with other methods, namely gross N mineralization, mineralization of amino acid-N, and natural 15N abundance of the microbial biomass, to determine the factors affecting the relative importance of the two N uptake routes. In a third step, the same methods shall be applied in a field study, which will focus of the temporal effects of fertilization management, including organic and mineral fertilizers, and the interactions with crops.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Rainer Georg Jörgensen; Professor Dr. Bernard Ludwig