The inhibiting effect of nitrate fertilisation on methane uptake of a temperate forest soil is influenced by labile carbon

Upland soils are the most important terrestrial sink for the greenhouse gas CH4. The oxidation of CH4 is highly influenced by reactive N which is increasingly added to many ecosystems by atmospheric deposition and thereby also alters the labile C pool in the soils. The interacting effects of soil N availability and the labile C pool on CH4 oxidation are not well understood. We conducted a laboratory experiment with soil columns consisting of homogenised topsoil material from a temperate broad-leaved forest to study the net CH4 flux under the combined or isolated addition of NO 3 − and glucose as a labile C source. Addition of NO 3 − and glucose reduced the net CH4 uptake of the soil by 86% and 83%, respectively. The combined addition of both agents led to a nearly complete inhibition of CH4 uptake (reduction by 99.4%). Our study demonstrates a close link between the availability of C and N and the rate of CH4 oxidation in temperate forest soils. Continued deposition of NO 3 − has the potential to reduce the sink strength of temperate forest soils for CH4.