Correlation Between CO2 Efflux and Net Nitrogen Mineralization and Its
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Pedosphere 21(5): 666–675, 2011 ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P c 2011 Soil Science Society of China Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press Correlation Between CO2 Efflux and Net Nitrogen Mineralization and Its Response to External C or N Supply in an Alpine Meadow Soil∗1 SONG Ming-Hua1,2,∗2, JIANG Jing1,3, XU Xing-Liang1 and SHI Pei-Li1 1Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modelling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101 (China) 2State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China) 3Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China) (Received November 30, 2010; revised June 15, 2011) ABSTRACT In nutrient-limited alpine meadows, nitrogen (N) mineralization is prior to soil microbial immobilization; therefore, increased mineral N supply would be most likely immobilized by soil microbes due to nutrient shortage in alpine soils. In addition, low temperature in alpine meadows might be one of the primary factors limiting soil organic matter decomposition and thus N mineralization. A laboratory incubation experiment was performed using an alpine meadow soil from the Tibetan Plateau. Two levels of NH4NO3 (N) or glucose (C) were added, with a blank without addition of C or N as the control, ◦ before incubation at 5, 15, or 25 C for 28 d. CO2 efflux was measured during the 28-d incubation, and the mineral N was measured at the beginning and end of the incubation, in order to test two hypotheses: 1) net N mineralization is negatively correlated with CO2 efflux for the control and 2) the external labile N or C supply will shift the negative correlation to positive. The results showed a negative correlation between CO2 efflux and net N immobilization in the control. External inorganic N supply did not change the negative correlation. The external labile C supply shifted the linear correlation from negative to positive under the low C addition level. However, under the high C level, no correlation was found. These suggested that the correlation of CO2 efflux to net N mineralization strongly depend on soil labile C and C:N ratio regardless of temperatures. Further research should focus on the effects of the types and the amount of litter components on interactions of C and N during soil organic matter decomposition. Key Words: C:N ratio, inorganic N, labile C, organic matter, temperature Citation: Song, M. H., Jiang, J., Xu, X. L. and Shi, P. L. 2011. Correlation between CO2 efflux and net nitrogen mineralization and its response to external C or N supply in an alpine meadow soil. Pedosphere. 21(5): 666–675. INTRODUCTION 1994). The connection between C and net N minerali- zation is reflected in most N mineralization models, Mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM) re- which assume constant C:N ratios of the microorga- leases carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) to the soil and en- nisms or variation of C:N ratios within certain limits vironment. SOM mineralization is directly relevant to (Parnas, 1975; Neill and Gignoux, 2006). Other mo- the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere dels are based on empirical relationships between net leading to global warming. N mineralization poten- N and C mineralization (Bosatta and Staaf, 1982). tial of soil is often used as an index of N availability to Net N mineralization is the result of two opposing plants in terrestrial ecosystems (Palm et al., 1993). Net processes: gross N mineralization and gross N immobi- C and N mineralization have often been studied to- lization. Therefore, net N mineralization is difficult to gether due to the closely related processes (Hart et al., predict. In a great number of decomposing litter ma- ∗1Supported by the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China (Nos. 2010CB951704 and 2010CB833502), the National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (No. 30600070), and the West Light Joint Scholarship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. ∗2Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. SOIL CO2 EFFLUX AND N MINERALIZATION 667 materials, two distinct phases can be distinguished: A nutrient-limited environment during the entire growing period of N accumulation is followed by a period of net season, with particular deficiencies in mineral N at the N release (Barrett and Burke, 2000; Bengtsson et al., beginning of the growing season (Zhou, 2001). Soil CO2 2003). The duration and magnitude of N accumula- efflux increased from July to August in the growing tion depends on the C/N ratio of the substrates (Bar- period, and decreased in September in the plant senes- rett and Burke, 2000; Bengtsson et al., 2003; Craine et cence period (Hu et al., 2008). al., 2007). SOM decomposition is modeled as a first- The relationships between soil respiration and net order process, with a constant decomposition rate per N mineralization and to what extent the correlation gram soil organic matter (SOM) (Van Veen and Paul, is regulated by external C or N supply are still not 1981; Parton et al., 1987; Moorhead and Reynolds, clear. In this study an incubation experiment under 1991). CO2 efflux rate decreases exponentially as the controlled condition was conducted to investigate 1) available fractions of soil C are consumed in the pro- the effects of temperature and external C or N supply cesses of SOM decomposition (Paul et al., 1998). Cor- on soil CO2 efflux and net N mineralization; 2) the relations between net N mineralization and CO2 pro- relationship between soil CO2 efflux and net N mine- duction were found to be positive (Scott et al., 1998; ralization. Two hypotheses were tested: 1) N minera- Parfitt et al., 2003), negative (Scott et al., 1998), or lization is characterized by an extensive soil microbe none (Kelliher et al., 2004). Murphy et al. (2003) have immobilization in nutrient-limited alpine meadow soils suggested that the relationship between mineralized N and therefore the correlation between soil respiration and respiration largely depends on the C:N ratio of the and net N mineralization should be negative during a decomposing pool and the microbial C use efficiency. short-term incubation and 2) due to the priming effect Basic stoichiometric decomposition theory predicts of labile N or C additions on N mineralization (Bosatta that ecosystems will store more C if increasing atmo- and Staaf, 1982), the external labile N or C supply will spheric CO2 leads to greater substrate C:N ratios (Hes- shift the correlation from negative to positive. sen et al., 2004), while increasing N availability would MATERIALS AND METHODS decrease soil C storage (Mack et al., 2004). The com- mon idea is that N addition causes the priming ef- Site description fect (Kuzyakov et al., 2000) on old soil organic mat- ter decomposition due to enhanced microbial activity Soil samples for this study were collected from (Westerman and Tucker, 1974). However, some studies an experimental site at the Haibei Research Station showed that N addition resulted in decline in decom- of Alpine Meadow Ecosystem, Chinese Academy of position and CO2 evolution (Westerman and Tucker, Sciences, located in the northeastern region of the 1974; Wang et al., 2004). Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (37◦ 32 N, 101◦ 15 E, 3 240 The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most sensitive m above sea level). Annual precipitation is 618 mm, places to global changes (IPCC, 2007). Fluctuations of which 85% is concentrated in the growing season in temperature have had clear effect on the Tibetan from May to September in the study site. Mean an- Plateau during the past 40 years. For example, the nual temperature is −1.7 ◦C. The soil is classified rate of increase in temperature amounts to 0.016 ◦C as a Mat Cry-gelic Cambisol (Chinese Soil Taxonomy year−1, which is higher than that of other regions in Research Group, 1995) corresponding to Gelic Cam- China; the average rate of temperature increase in bisol (FAO/ISRIC/ISSS, 1998). A detailed description Chinaasawholeis0.004◦Cyear−1 (Tang et al., of the soil characteristics is given in Table I. The 1998). Average N deposition from precipitation is 4.6 study site is dominated by a perennial herb Kobre- kgNha−1 year−1 in alpine meadows (Jiang, 2010). The sia humilis Serg. (Cyperaceae). Other common species plateau covers approximately 2.5 million km2 with an include grasses such as Stipa aliena, Elymus nutans average altitude of more than 4 000 m. Approximately Griseb., and Festuca ovina Linn. and herbs such as 35% of the plateau is occupied by alpine meadows Saussurea superba Anth., Gentiana lawrencei Burk. (Zheng, 2000) and the decomposition rate of the soil var. farreri T. N. Ho, Gentiana straminea Maxim., is very low due to low temperature. N mineralized in Potentilla nivea Linn., Potentilla saundersiana Royle, this meadows is subject to microbial immobilization Scirpus distigmaticus Tang et Wang, Cyperaeae herbs during the growing season (−27 mg m−2 d−1)(Cao such as Kobresia pygmaea C. B. Clarke in Hook f., and and Zhang, 2001). Generally, alpine plants grow in a Carex sp. (Zhou, 2001). Total vegetation coverage is 668 M. H. SONG et al. + − TABLE I NH4 -N and NO3 -N with an auto analyzer (Bremner, 1965). Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) was calcu- Some basic properties of the soil (top 10 cm) at the study n lated as the difference between the total N and ex- site ( = 6–8) + − changeable inorganic N (NH4 -N + NO3 -N) in the ex- a) Property Mean Standard error tracts. The basic properties of the soil studied are pre- pH 8.0 0.1 sented in Table I.