Linking soil organic carbon mineralization to soil physicochemical properties and bacterial alpha diversity at different depths following land use changes

Background Anthropogenic land use changes(LUCs)impart intensifying impacts on soil organic carbon(SOC)turnover,leading to uncertainty concerning SOC mineralization patterns and determining whether soils act as“source”or“sink”in the global carbon budget.Therefore,understanding the SOC mineralization characteristics of different LUC patterns and their potential influencing factors is crucial.An indoor incubation experiment was conducted to study the SOC mineralization patterns and their relevance to soil physicochemical properties,soil enzyme activity,SOC fractions,and bacterial alpha diversity.The soils were collected from two layers of five typical LUC patterns in Yellow Sea Forest Park,including four that were converted from wheat-corn rotation systems[a gingko plantation(G),a metasequoia plantation(M),a gingko-wheat-corn agroforestry system(GW),and a gingko-metasequoia system(GM)]and a traditional wheat-corn system(W).Results LUCs had significant and diverse impacts on the SOC content and SOC fraction contents and on soil enzyme activity.The cumulative SOC mineralization was significantly higher in the M systen than in the W and GW systems at 0-20 cm depth and higher in the G system than in the GW system at 20-40 cm depth after 60-day incubation.The mineralization ratio was highest in the W system and lowest in the GW system.The soil pH and bulk density had a significant negative correlation with the cumulative SOC mineralization,while the soil bacterial Shannon index had a significant positive correlation with cumulative SOC mineralization.Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis showed that the SOC mineralization potential was dominantly explained by the bacterial Shannon index and operational taxonomic units(OTUs).The GW system had lower potentially mineralizable SOC and higher SOC stability.Additionally,the incubation time and cumulative SOC mineralization were well fitted by the first-order kinetic equation.Conclusions LUCs significantly changed SOC mineralization characteristics and the results highlighted the important roles of the bacterial community in soil carbon cycling,which contributes to the fundamental understanding of SOC turnover regulation.

Effects of Nitrogen Treatments on Organic Carbon Mineralization of Citrus Orchard Soil

[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the effect of soil organic carbon mineralization at different temperature on the amount of nitrogen application, in order to provide references for the establishment of carbon circulation model for orchard eco-system. [Method] The effects of nitrogen treatments on soil organic carbon mineralization of citrus orchard soil were investigated under 10, 20, 30 ℃ by laboratory simulated experiment. [Result] The mineralization rate decreased quickly at the be- ginning of the experiment but remained stable at the late period under three temper- ature treatments. The amounts of CO2 ranged from 1 328.25-2 219.42 mg/kg under three temperature condition, and the amount of soil organic carbon mineralization of 100 mg/kg （N4） treatment was the greatest, while that of CK was the lowest. High level nitrogen treatment （N4 and N3） were significant higher than the lower level nitro- gen treatment （N2 and N1）. The soil organic carbon mineralization rate increased with the temperature from 10 to 30℃. The dependence of soil carbon mineralization to temperature （Q10） was different under different nitrogen treatments that the Qlo value of N2 treatment was the lowest while that of the N4 treatment was the greatest. The soil organic carbon mineralization in Citrus orange orchard soil was affected significantly by high level nitrogen treatment, but with no significance under lower nitrogen treatment. [Conclusion] The dependence of soil carbon mineralization to temperature （Q10） increased with the increasing nitrogen input. The combination of nitrogen with temperature may increase the CO2 emission from Citrus orchard soil.

Composition and mineralization of soil organic carbon pools in four single-tree species forest soils

Forest soil carbon （C） is an important compo- nent of the global C cycle. However, the mechanism by which tree species influence soil organic C （SOC） pool composition and mineralization is poorly understood. To understand the effect of tree species on soil C cycling, we assessed total, labile, and recalcitrant SOC pools, SOC chemical composition by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and SOC mineralization in four monoculture plantations. Labile and recalcitrant SOC pools in surface （0-10 cm） and deep （40-60 cm） soils in the four forests contained similar content. In contrast, these SOC pools exhibited differences in the subsurface soil （from 10 to 20 cm and from 20 to 40 cm）. The alkyl C and O-alkyl C intensities of SOC were higher in Schima superba and Michelia macclurei forests than in Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana forests. In surface soil, S. superba and M. macclurei forests exhibited higher SOC mineralization rates than did P. massoniana and C.lanceolata forests. The slope of the straight line between C60 and labile SOC was steeper than that between C60 and total SOC. Our results suggest that roots affected the composition of SOC pools. Labile SOC pools also affected SOC mineralization to a greater extent than total SOC pools.