Vegetation, soil and hydrology management influence denitrification activity and the composition of nirK-type denitrifier communities in a newly afforested riparian buffer.

Soil microbial community composition and activity could be affected by suitable manipulation of the environment they live in. If correctly applied such an approach could become a very effective way to remediate excess of chemicals. The concentration of nitrogen, especially nitrate deriving from agricultural managements, is generally found to increase in water flow. Therefore, by forcing the water flow through a buffer strip specifically designed and possibly afforested with suitable plant species, may result effective in reducing high nitrogen contents. The management of a riparian buffer may definitely affect the soil microbial activities, including denitrification, as well as the composition of the community. The present study reports on the changes occurred in terms of denitrifying microbial community composition, as compared to that of a neighbouring agricultural area, as a consequence of hydraulic management coupled to the suspension of farming practices and to the development of the woody and herbaceous vegetation. With this aim, denitrification was repeatedly measured and the data obtained were related to those deriving from a specific analysis of bacterial groups involved in denitrification. nirK, encoding for nitrite reductase, an enzyme essential for the conversion of nitrite to nitric oxide and considered the key step in the denitrification process, was chosen as the target gene. The main results obtained indicated that denitrification activity changes in riparian buffer as compared to agricultural soil and it is strongly influenced by carbon availability and soil depth. Although no significant differences on the community composition between superficial (0-15 cm) and medium (40-55 cm) layers were observed, the nirK-type denitrifier community was shown to significantly differ between riparian and agricultural soils in both surface and medium layers.
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