Abundance and community structure of ureolytic bacteria in responses to long-term nitrogen fertilization

In our work, soil samples were collected from a long-time field experiment with four nitrogen application rates (0; 200; 400 and 600 kg N ha-1 year-1) in the North China Plain. We investigated how the long-term (20yrs) urea application altered the urease activity along the soil profile (0-10; 10-20 and 20-30 cm). And the ureolytic bacteria abundance and composition along the soil layer and across the fertilization rates was assessed by quantifying and high throughput sequencing of the ureC gene.