The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO 2 , water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.

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Appropriate fertilizer application is an important management practice to improve soil fertility and quality in the red soil regions of China. In the present study, we examined the effects of five fertilization treatments [these were: no fertilizer (CK), rice straw return (SR), chemical fertilizer (NPK), organic manure (OM) and green manure (GM)] on soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio and available nutrients (AN, AP and AK) contents in the plowed layer (0–20 cm) of paddy soil from 1998 to 2009 in Jiangxi Province, southern China. Results showed that the soil pH was the lowest with an average of 5.33 units in CK and was significantly higher in NPK (5.89 units) and OM (5.63 units) treatments (P<0.05). The application of fertilizers have remarkably improved SOC and TN values compared with the CK, Specifically, the OM treatment resulted in the highest SOC and TN concentrations (72.5% and 51.2% higher than CK) and NPK treatment increased the SOC and TN contents by 22.0% and 17.8% compared with CK. The average amounts of C/N ratio ranged from 9.66 to 10.98 in different treatments, and reached the highest in OM treatment (P<0.05). During the experimental period, the average AN and AP contents were highest in OM treatment (about 1.6 and 29.6 times of that in the CK, respectively) and second highest in NPK treatment (about 1.2 and 20.3 times of that in the CK). Unlike AN and AP, the highest value of AK content was observed in NPK treatments with 38.10 mg·kg−1. Thus, these indicated that organic manure should be recommended to improve soil fertility in this region and K fertilizer should be simultaneously applied considering the soil K contents. Considering the long-term fertilizer efficiency, our results also suggest that annual straw returning application could improve soil fertility in this trial region.

Fine roots of woody plants comprise multiple root orders, which can be functionally partitioned into two pools: absorptive fine roots (AFRs, orders 1, 2) and transport fine roots (TFRs, orders 3-5). However, the function-based fine-root dynamics and especially their responses to increased nitrogen (N) availability remain unclear. We explored dynamic responses of both AFRs and TFRs of Pinus elliottii to N addition in subtropical China based on a 4-yr minirhizotron experiment and a two-stage - early (0.5 yr) vs late (4 yr) - decomposition experiment. N addition increased the production, mortality, and turnover of AFRs but not TFRs. High rates of N persistently inhibited AFR decomposition but affected TFR decomposition differentially at the early (no effect) and late (negative effect) stages. The increased production of AFRs was driven by N-induced decrease in foliar and soil phosphorus (P) concentrations. The decreased decomposition of AFRs might be due to the increased acid-unhydrolyzable residues in decomposing roots. AFRs are the resource-acquiring module, the increased carbon allocation to AFRs may represent a P-acquiring strategy when N no longer limits growth of P. elliottii. Our results suggest that AFRs and TFRs respond differently to N deposition, both in terms of production, mortality, and turnover and in terms of decomposition.

• Acid phosphatase activity was negatively correlated with soil pH and P content.• βG, NAG, and LAP activities were positively correlated with SOC and Total N contents.• The four enzyme activities were significantly higher under manure than NPK fertilizer.• Enzyme activities were positively correlated with actinomycete and G + bacterium.• We recommend reducing P fertilizer application rates to subtropical paddy soils. G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C Ta b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Long-term phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) applications may seriously affect soil microbial activity. A long-term field fertilizer application trial was established on reddish paddy soils in the subtropical region of southern China in 1998. We assessed the effects of swine manure and seven different rates or ratios of NPK fertilizer treatments on (1) the absolute and specific enzyme activities per unit of soil organic carbon (SOC) or microbial biomass carbon (MBC) involved in C, N, and P transformations and (2) their relationships with soil environmental factors and soil microbial community structures. The results showed that manure applications led to increases in the absolute and specific activities of soil β-1,4-glucosidase(βG), β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP). The absolute and specific acid phosphatase (AP) activities decreased as mineral P fertilizer application rates and ratios increased. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that there were negative correlations between absolute and specific AP activities, pH, and total P contents, while there were positive correlations between soil absolute and specific βG, NAG, and LAP enzyme activities, and SOC and total N contents. RDA showed that the contents of actinomycete and Gram-positive bacterium PLFA biomarkers are more closely related to the absolute and specific enzyme activities than the other PLFA biomarkers (P b 0.01). Our results suggest that both the absolute and specific enzyme activities could be used as sensitive soil quality indicators that provide useful linkages with the microbial community structures and environmental factors. To maintain microbial activity and to minimize environmental impacts, P should be applied as a combination of inorganic and organic forms, and total P fertilizer application rates to subtropical paddy soils should not exceed 44 kg P ha −1 year −1 .

Plant species diversity affects carbon and nutrient cycling during litter decomposition, yet the generality of the direction of this effect and its magnitude remains uncertain. With a meta-analysis including 65 field studies across the Earth’s major forest ecosystems, we show here that decomposition was faster when litter was composed of more than one species. These positive biodiversity effects were mostly driven by temperate forests but were more variable in other forests. Litter mixture effects emerged most strongly in early decomposition stages and were related to divergence in litter quality. Litter diversity also accelerated nitrogen, but not phosphorus release, potentially indicating a decoupling of nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and perhaps a shift in ecosystem nutrient limitation with changing biodiversity. Our findings demonstrate the importance of litter diversity effects for carbon and nutrient dynamics during decomposition, and show how these effects vary with litter traits, decomposer complexity and forest characteristics.

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