Metagenomic insights into straw return and liming effects on nitrogen-cycling microbial communities in a urea-amended soil

Understanding microbial N metabolism in soil is of great importance for managing soil acidification for sustainable agricultural development. The ammonification, nitrification and denitrification processes are the key to understand how N-cycling microbial communities associated with soil acidification. Straw return and liming have been widely recommended as appealing measures to alleviate soil acidification. Here, a field experiment was conducted to test how changes in N-cycling microbial communities induced by straw return and liming in a urea-amended soil contributes to alleviate soil acidification.