It has been shown that different nitrogen (N) addition led to various influences on soil microbial activities in forest ecosystems; however, the changes of bacteria were still unclear. In this work, inorganic N (NHNO) and organic N (urea and glycine) were fertilized with different ratios (5:0, 1:4, 3:2, 2:3, and 1:4) on temperate forest soils, while fungicide (cycloheximide) was simultaneously added on half of each treatment to inhibit fungal activities (leaving only bacteria). After a 3-year field experiment, soil samples were harvested, then microbial enzymatic activities involved in carbon (C), and N and phosphorus (P) cycles were determined. Under laboratory conditions, four purified bacteria which were isolated from sample site had been inoculated in sterilized soils under different N types and enzymatic activities were assayed after 90-day incubation. The results showed that cellulase and polyphenol oxidase activities of non-fungicide-added treatments increased after N addition and greater organic N accelerated the increases. However, these enzymatic activities of fungicide-added treatments were not significantly influenced by N addition and N types. It may be due to the insufficient ability of bacteria to synthesize enough enzymes to decompose complex organic C (such as cellulose and lignin) into available compound, although N-limitation was alleviated. Alkaline phosphatase activities increased after N addition in both non-fungicide-added and fungicide-added treatments, and the acceleration on bacterial alkaline phosphatase activities was even greater. Furthermore, organic N showed at least 2.5 times promotion on bacteria alkaline phosphatase than those of inorganic N, which indicated greater alleviation of bacterial P-limitation after the addition of organic N. All the results indicated that soil bacteria may be seriously limited by soil available C but become the dominant decomposer of the complex P compounds after N addition, particularly greater organic N.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.