Summary
Soils are the largest source of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O), a powerful greenhouse gas. Dry soils rarely harbor anoxic conditions to favor denitrification, the predominant N<sub>2</sub>O-producing process, yet, among the largest N<sub>2</sub>O emissions have been measured after wetting summer-dry desert soils, raising the question: Can denitrifiers endure extreme drought and produce N<sub>2</sub>O immediately after rainfall? Using isotopic and molecular approaches in a California desert, we found that denitrifiers produced N<sub>2</sub>O within 15 minutes of wetting dry soils (site preference = 12.8 ± 3.92 per mil, δ<sup>15</sup>N<sup>bulk</sup> = 18.6 ± 11.1 per mil). Consistent with this finding, we detected nitrate-reducing transcripts in dry soils and found that inhibiti
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