Effect of urease inhibitors on urea degradation rate and soil prokaryotic community structure in a short-term experimental incubation

Urease inhibitors can reduce urea degradation rate. A laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to test the effects of the urease inhibitors N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT) and hydroquinone (HQ) in retarding the hydrolysis of urea and in altering the soil microbial community structure. There were six different treatments for studied soils, adding water, urea, NBPT, HQ, urea + NBPT and urea + HQ. Soils urea content were tested in different incubation time and 16S rRNA gene were sequenced in 18 h and 72 h.The results showed that NBPT has much stronger inhibition effects than HQ on the studied soil, and the decrease of the enzyme activities was accompanied by change in the microbial community structure even within short term incubations.