Belowground microbial communities strongly influence ecosystem function such that predicting function may rely on understanding ecological processes that assemble communities. Uncertainty remains, however, in what governs the relative contributions of different ecological processes. To help fill this knowledge gap, we test the general hypothesis that both initial state and degree of change in environmental conditions govern the relative contributions of different ecological assembly processes. To do so, we leveraged regional‐scale nutrient and organic matter addition experiments and used soil organic matter (SOM) as a proxy of integrated soil environmental conditions. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that both the initial amount of SOM and the degree of change in SOM—in response to nutrient addition—influenced the relative contributions of different ecological assembly processes. These influences were most clearly observed at the regional scale, suggesting potential scale dependence. More specifically, nutrient additions homogenized bacterial community composition due to enhanced influences of homogenizing dispersal when SOM content was initially high. In contrast, nutrient additions led to divergence in community composition due to variable selection when initial SOM was low and/or when SOM increased significantly in response to nutrient additions. Our findings indicate important connections among initial conditions, degree of change in environmental variables and microbial community assembly processes that may influence ecosystem processes. These conceptual inferences highlight a need to strengthen connections between ecological theory and biogeochemical modelling.

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A pot incubation experiment with rice residues (straw and root) was conducted under aerobic condition (60% of WHC, water holding capacity) for a period of 55 days in a greenhouse. The emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) were determined by the closed chamber method in a paddy soil. The soil was derived from quaternary red clay, and collected from the Ecological Station of Red Soil, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in Jiangxi Province, a subtropical region of China. The emissions of CO 2 and N 2 O were increased by the amendment of rice residues. Significantly positive correlation was found between N 2 O and CO 2 fluxes (R = 0.650*−0.870*, P ≤ 0.05). The cumulative emissions during the early stage of the incubation (<25 days after residue addition) accounted for about 67% -86% and 67% -80% of the total amount of CO 2 and N 2 O emissions, respectively. Cumulative emissions and emission factors of the two gases were higher in the soils amended with rice straw than those with rice root. The two gas fluxes were positively correlated with microbial biomass C and N, as well as soluble organic C. N 2 O flux was positively correlated with NH 4 + -N content at the early stage (<25 days), and negatively with NO 3 − -N content at the later stage of this incubation (25-55 days), implying that both nitrification and denitrification may have contributed to N 2 O production.

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In the background of rapid expansion of plastic greenhouse vegetable production in China, many environmental risks have emerged in recent years. In this study, the soils with a chronosequence in greenhouse vegetable fields were collected and the soil humic acids (HAs) and fluvic acids (FAs) were extracted and purified. The soil HAs and FAs were found to show inhibition activities against phytopathogenic fungi for the first time. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was performed to investigate the chemical structures of HAs and FAs. The variation of relative peak areas indicated the chemical structure of HAs become more complex and stable under continuous cultivation. The PCA analysis showed HAs and FAs could be distinctly separated from each other and cultivation years mainly determined the variation. Mantel test and RDA analysis indicated the active components (aliphatic peaks for HAs and COOH, OH peaks for FAs) had positive correlation with the inhibition rates of HAs and FAs against phytopathogenic fungi. According to our research, the active fungicidal components in soil HAs and FAs decreased along with the extension of cultivation years, which made the soil suffer more risk to phytopathogenic fugi. So we believe continuous cultivation too many years in PGVP systems is inadvisable.

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