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Soil organic nitrogen (N) turnover is significantly influenced by elevated N deposition, precipitation and human-caused disturbances, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Identifying the relationships among the soil organic N fractions and N-mineralizing enzymes activities may advance our knowledge of the dynamics of soil organic N.

A field experiment was conducted in a semi-arid steppe and an abandoned cropland in northern China to investigate the effects of elevated N deposition and precipitation on soil organic N fractions and their relationships with N-mineralizing enzymes, i.e., protease, amidase, urease and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) activities.

The concentrations of N in various fractions were consistently lower in the abandoned cropland compared with the steppe. Nitrogen addition consistently decreased amino acid N content and activities of urease, protease and amidase in both sites but increased amino sugar N content and NAG activity in the steppe. Water addition decreased hydrolysable ammonium N content but increased amino sugar N content and activities of protease and NAG in both sites. Furthermore, urease and NAG activities were significantly positively correlated with the proportions of amino acid N and amino sugar N and, explained significant proportions of the variations in soil organic N fractions in the steppe. However, soil organic carbon (C), rather than N-mineralizing enzymes, explained greatest proportion of the variations in soil organic N fractions in the abandoned cropland.

The concurrent increase of N deposition and precipitation could promote the recovery of soil N (and C) losses in the abandoned cropland resulting from previous agriculture. Furthermore, in the steppe where NH4 (+) was available at relative high concentrations, enzymatic mineralization was the dominant route involved in potential soil organic N turnover. However, the direct route may be favored over the enzymatic mineralization route with decreasing availability of C relative to N in the abandoned cropland, which is driven by the need for C. These findings confirmed that the forms of N available, and the relative availability of C and N determine N uptake pathways both through enzymatic mineralization route and direct uptake route in the semi-arid grasslands.