Soil could produce greenhouse gas N₂O and emit it to atmosphere; however, it could be retained, absorbed, and transformed. The N₂O consumption by soil has become a very important way to reduce atmospheric N₂O concentration, but the systematic research on the N₂O consumption process in soil and its microbial regulation mechanism is scarce at present. The surface paddy soil cores (0-5 cm) were incubated under laboratory conditions, by adding exogenous N₂O into the bottom of flooded soil cores, and the dynamics of N₂O diffusion through the soil cores and after transportation were monitored. The links between N₂O consumption ability and the variation of the nosZ gene abundance and other soil nutrient contents were explored to reveal the coupling relationship between N₂O consumption and N₂O reducing microorganisms. The results showed that only 7.17%-9.80% of the exogenous N₂O added in the 5 cm soil depth escaped the soil surface under anaerobic and submergence conditions, indicating that the flooded 0-5 cm paddy soil layer had a strong N₂O interception capacity (over 90%) and reduced N₂O net emissions. The N₂O escaped from the soil surface could also be absorbed and transformed by the submerged soil column, and the consumption rate increased significantly as N₂O increased in the headspace, with a maximum value of 3896.75 μg N m^-2 h^-1. At the same time, large quantities of soil DOC were consumed and the number of denitrifying microorganisms containing the nosZI gene increased significantly (P < 0.01), whereas the abundance of nosZII gene did not obviously change. This suggests that the N₂O consumption ability of surface paddy soil cores under anaerobic and flooded conditions could be promoted by high concentrations of N₂O addition, and this stimulation may be mainly regulated by N₂O reducing microorganisms containing the nosZI gene, not the nosZII gene. The strong ability of N₂O consumption of surface soil needs to be further studied to provide a theoretical basis for the practice of greenhouse gas reduction.