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The mangrove forest provides various ecosystem services in tropical and subtropical regions. Many of these services are driven by the biogeochemical cycles of C and N, and soil is the major reservoir for these chemical elements. These cycles may be influenced by the changing climate. The high plant biomass in mangrove forests makes these forests an important sink for blue C storage. However, anaerobic soil conditions may also turn mangrove forests into an environmentally detrimental producer of greenhouse gases (such as CH4 and N2O), especially as air temperatures increase. In addition, the changing environmental factors associated with climate change may also influence the N cycles and change the patterns of N2 fixation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium, and denitrification processes. This review summarizes the biogeochemical processes of C and N cycles in mangrove forest soils based on recently published studies, and how these processes may respond to climate change, with the aim of predicting the impacts of climate change on the mangrove forest ecosystem.

Methanotrophs are important microbial communities in coastal ecosystems. They reduce CH emission in situ, which is influenced by soil conditions. This study aimed to understand the differences in active aerobic methanotrophic communities in mangrove forest soils experiencing different inundation frequency, i.e., in soils from tidal mangroves, distributed at lower elevations, and from dwarf mangroves, distributed at higher elevations. Labeling of pmoA gene of active methanotrophs using DNA-based stable isotope probing (DNA-SIP) revealed that methanotrophic activity was higher in the dwarf mangrove soils than in the tidal mangrove soils, possibly because of the more aerobic soil conditions. Methanotrophs affiliated with the cluster deep-sea-5 belonging to type Ib methanotrophs were the most dominant methanotrophs in the fresh mangrove soils, whereas type II methanotrophs also appeared in the fresh dwarf mangrove soils. Furthermore, Methylobacter and Methylosarcina were the most important active methanotrophs in the dwarf mangrove soils, whereas Methylomonas and Methylosarcina were more active in the tidal mangrove soils. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene also confirmed similar differences in methanotrophic communities at the different locations. However, several unclassified methanotrophic bacteria were found by 16S rRNA MiSeq sequencing in both fresh and incubated mangrove soils, implying that methanotrophic communities in mangrove forests may significantly differ from the methanotrophic communities documented in previous studies. Overall, this study showed the feasibility of CH DNA-SIP to study the active methanotrophic communities in mangrove forest soils and revealed differences in the methanotrophic community structure between coastal mangrove forests experiencing different tide frequencies.

Badland soils—which have high silt and clay contents, bulk density, and soil electric conductivity— cover a large area of Southern Taiwan. This study evaluated the amelioration of these poor soils by thorny bamboo, one of the few plant species that grows in badland soils. Soil physiochemical and biological parameters were measured from three thorny bamboo plantations and nearby bare lands. Results show that bamboo increased microbial C and N, soil acid-hydrolysable C, recalcitrant C, and soluble organic C of badland soils. High microbial biomass C to total organic C ratio indicates that soil organic matter was used more efficiently by microbes colonizing bamboo plantations than in bare land soils. High microbial respiration to biomass C ratio in bare land soils confirmed environmentally induced stress. Soil microbes in bare land soils also faced soil organic matter with the high ratio of recalcitrant C to total organic C. The high soil acid-hydrolysable C to total organic C ratio at bamboo plantations supported the hypothesis that decomposition of bamboo litter increased soil C in labile fractions. Overall, thorny bamboo improved soil quality, thus, this study demonstrates that planting thorny bamboo is a successful practice for the amelioration of badland soils.

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Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is one of the widely growing bamboo species in Asia. Because of its fast growth and aggressive rhizomes, it is reported to invade other forests and reduce the biodiversity of forest ecosystems. To determine the changes in soil nutrient conditions due to moso bamboo invasion, this research measured the difference in soil labile carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) forest invaded by moso bamboo in central Taiwan. The content of soluble organic C (S b OC), measured by both KCl and hot-water extraction methods, was lower in bamboo than cedar soils. This observation agreed with the finding that the more easily decomposed S b OC could be lost with bamboo invasion. In addition, both S b OC KCl and S b OC HW contents were positively correlated with microbial biomass C content, so the decreased labile organic C content in bamboo soils may reduce microbial biomass production. Principal component analysis revealed soil organic C content (total organic C, S b OC and acid-hydrolysable C) as the most important soil parameter affected by the bamboo invasion, followed by microbial biomass N and NO 3 − contents in soils. The soil quality index model also agreed with the degraded soil quality with bamboo invasion. In conclusion, the invasion of moso bamboo reduced the C and N pools in bamboo soil and degraded the overall soil quality.

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