The coupling of leaf, litter, and soil nutrients in warm temperate forests in northwestern China

Zhang, Guangqi; Zhang, Ping; Peng, Shouzhang; Chen, Yunming; Cao, Yang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12199-5

Cited by 44 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(71 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This leads to increased plant growth that usually results in higher output of plant exudates, roots and litter decomposition, and consequently higher soil organic matter (SOM) [ 8 , 25 ]. Moreover, increased litter accumulation will result in increased nutrient cycling on the soil surface, as bigger plants will extract more nutrients from different soil depths that are then decomposed and mineralized on the surface (e.g., K and NO 3 ) [ 26 , 27 ]. On the other hand, plants growing in acidic soils are not usually smaller but also have altered metabolisms and different biomass composition—for example, some soybean varieties produce root organic exudates (e.g., malate) to reduce toxic effects of Al [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect effects of a pH gradient bring insights into the mechanisms driving prokaryotic community structures

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundpH is frequently reported as the main driver for prokaryotic community structure in soils. However, pH changes are also linked to “spillover effects” on other chemical parameters (e.g., availability of Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) and plant growth, but these indirect effects on the microbial communities are rarely investigated. Usually, pH also co-varies with some confounding factors, such as land use, soil management (e.g., tillage and chemical inputs), plant cover, and/or edapho-climatic conditions. So, a more comprehensive analysis of the direct and indirect effects of pH brings a better understanding of the mechanisms driving prokaryotic (archaeal and bacterial) community structures.ResultsWe evaluated an agricultural soil pH gradient (from 4 to 6, the typical range for tropical farms), in a liming gradient with confounding factors minimized, investigating relationships between prokaryotic communities (16S rRNA) and physical–chemical parameters (indirect effects). Correlations, hierarchical modeling of species communities (HMSC), and random forest (RF) modeling indicated that both direct and indirect effects of the pH gradient affected the prokaryotic communities. Some OTUs were more affected by the pH changes (e.g., some Actinobacteria), while others were more affected by the indirect pH effects (e.g., some Proteobacteria). HMSC detected a phylogenetic signal related to the effects. Both HMSC and RF indicated that the main indirect effect was the pH changes on the availability of some elements (e.g., Al, Fe, and Cu), and secondarily, effects on plant growth and nutrient cycling also affected the OTUs. Additionally, we found that some of the OTUs that responded to pH also correlated with CO2, CH4, and N2O greenhouse gas fluxes.ConclusionsOur results indicate that there are two distinct pH-related mechanisms driving prokaryotic community structures, the direct effect and “spillover effects” of pH (indirect effects). Moreover, the indirect effects are highly relevant for some OTUs and consequently for the community structure; therefore, it is a mechanism that should be further investigated in microbial ecology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-018-0482-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect effects of a pH gradient bring insights into the mechanisms driving prokaryotic community structures

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Northern China, which predominantly consists of arid and semiarid areas, has been experiencing large‐scale afforestation in recent decades, such as that associated with the ‘Grain for Green’ programme and the ‘Three Norths Shelter Forest System’ project. There is a need for further knowledge of changes in P after afforestation in this area, not only because the soil P concentration in northern China is lower on average than the global mean, resulting from low P inputs by weathering and strong losses by soil erosion and water runoff (Cao, Zhang, & Chen, ; Zhang, Zhang, Peng, Chen, & Cao, ), but also because northern China features by the climate of short rainy season and the growth and survival of vegetation in China's arid and semiarid regions are strongly limited by the availability of water (Deng, Yan, Zhang, & Shangguan, ). Although meta‐analyses have been extensively used in quantitative reviews of changes in soil C and soil N after afforestation in this region, changes in soil P after afforestation are nonexistent or scarce.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in soil phosphorus and its influencing factors following afforestation in Northern China

Peng

et al. 2019

Land Degrad Dev

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Changes in soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks following afforestation have been widely studied at different scales. However, soil phosphorus (P) dynamics following afforestation are poorly understood, especially at the regional scale. This paper studied the effects of prior land use (cropland, grassland, and barren land), tree species (conifer, broadleaf, shrub, and mixed), plantation age (young, middle, and old), and climate on soil total phosphorus and available phosphorus stocks change in the top 20 cm following afforestation based on a synthesis of 50 recent publications in northern China. We also considered possible confounding effects between these factors. The results showed that, overall, soil total phosphorus and available phosphorus stocks significantly decreased by 7.3% and significantly increased by 8.8%, respectively, following afforestation. Prior land use was found to be the most important driver in determining changes in soil P stocks. Compared with a significant decrease in P of afforestation of former cropland and grassland, afforestation of barren land caused no clear decrease in P. Tree species was found to have a limited effect on changes in soil P after afforestation, and broadleaf afforestation has a lower P demand than coniferous forests in the studied region. Plantation age did not affect the dynamics of P stocks. Our results showed confounding effects of precipitation, prior land use, and tree species, which impacted the estimates of the drivers of changes in P stocks. These results highlighted the importance of tree species selection and replication across sites that receive different amounts of precipitation.

show abstract

“…Forest ecosystem components may have close links among each other for changes in N:P ratio and their concentrations (Sophie et al, ; Zhang et al, ). As mentioned above, more N or P input can reduce the relative availability of light resource relative to soil nutrients in forest ecosystems, with a result of lessening belowground resource competition for root uptake but enhancing aboveground light competition for photosynthesis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different Responses and Links of N:P Ratio Among Ecosystem Components Under Nutrient Addition in a Temperate Forest

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) deposition have increased rapidly during the past decades, which likely changes soil N and P availability. These soil resource variations will further affect N, P concentration and N:P ratio in different ecosystem pools (i.e., soil, leaf, litter, root, and microbe). Various pools may show different stoichiometric responses to nutrient enrichment, with a further influence on ecosystem nutrient cycling. However, few studies have been conducted to fully examine the stoichiometric responses of different pools and their nutrient relationships in a given ecosystem. Here we established a 2‐year experiment of N (10 g m−2 year−1), P (10 g m−2 year−1), and combined N + P addition in a temperate forest of Changbai Mountain. We found significantly different N:P stoichiometric responses among various ecosystem components under P addition, with the leaves showing a higher response than litter and root while microbe behaving the lowest response. The responses of N:P ratio to N + P addition were similar with those under P addition in all pools. In most cases, N addition did not significantly affect N:P ratio. These results indicate that N:P ratio response was mainly determined by changes in P rather than N concentration in this temperate forest ecosystem. Moreover, we found tighter N:P stoichiometric correlations than elements among diverse ecosystem components under nutrient addition. Overall, our research reveals different responses and tight links of element stoichiometric variations among various ecosystem components in face of nutrient enrichment. It calls our attention to considering stoichiometric changes in the whole ecosystem beyond individual plant organ or microbial component.

show abstract

The coupling of leaf, litter, and soil nutrients in warm temperate forests in northwestern China

Cited by 44 publications

References 49 publications

Direct and indirect effects of a pH gradient bring insights into the mechanisms driving prokaryotic community structures

Direct and indirect effects of a pH gradient bring insights into the mechanisms driving prokaryotic community structures

Changes in soil phosphorus and its influencing factors following afforestation in Northern China

Different Responses and Links of N:P Ratio Among Ecosystem Components Under Nutrient Addition in a Temperate Forest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About