Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 7 1 2010 10.5194/bg-7-275-2010 http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/275/2010/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/275/2010/bg-7-275-2010.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/275/2010/bg-7-275-2010.pdf 275 287 2010-01-20 Belowground carbon pools and dynamics in China's warm temperate and sub-tropical deciduous forests C. W. Xiao cwxiao@ibcas.ac.cn I. A. Janssens W. G. Sang R. Z. Wang Z. Q. Xie Z. Q. Pei Y. Yi State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China Department of Biology, Research Group of Plant and Vegetation Ecology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1,\newline 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China We report the first estimates of pools and dynamics of microbes, roots, plant litter and soil organic carbon (SOC) in three dominant types of China's vast deciduous forest area: Betula platyphylla, Quercus liaotungensis, and Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata. Organic matter degradation rates overshadowed litter inputs as the main determinant of the soil carbon stocks. Across the three forests, rates of litter decomposition were also indicative for turnover rates of SOC. Litter and SOC decay was faster in the sub-tropical than in the warm-temperate forests. Among the latter, SOC turnover was highest in the forest producing the higher-quality litter. Microbial biomass was, as expected, correlated with SOC content. Microbial activity, in contrast, was highest at the sub-tropical forest, despite the lower SOC availability, lower fraction of labile SOC, and lower soil microbial biomass. These results may contribute to increased understanding of controls over belowground carbon cycling in deciduous forests. Aber, J. D., Melillo, J. M., Nadelhoffer, K. J., McClaugherty, C. A., and Pastor, J.: Fine root turnover in forest ecosystems in relation to quantity and form of nitrogen availability: a comparison of two methods, Oecologia, 66, 317–321, 1985. Arunachalam, A., Pandey, H. N., Tripathi, R. S., and Maithani, K.: Fine root decomposition and nutrient mineralization patterns in a subtropical humid forest following tree cutting, Forest Ecol. Manag., 86, 141–150, 1996. Bao, S. D.: Agriculture Soil Chemical Analysis, Science Press, Beijing, China, 263–271, 1999. Bradford, M. A., Davies, C. A., Frey, S. D., Maddox, T. R., Melillo, J. M., Mohan, J. E., Reynolds, J. F., Treseder, K. K., and Wallenstein, M. D.: Thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration to elevated temperature, Ecol. Lett., 11, 1316–1327, 2008. Callesen, I., Liski, J., Raulund-Rasmussen, K., Olsson, M. T., Tau-Strand, L., Vesterdal, L., and Westman, C. J.: Soil carbon stores in Nordic well-drained forest soils – relationships with climate and texture class, Glob. Change Biol., 9, 358–370, 2003. Chen, L. Z.: Study on the Structure and Function of Warm Temperate Forest Ecosystems, Science Press, Beijing , China, 1997. Christensen, B. T.: Physical fractionation of soil and structural and functional complexity in organic matter turnover, Eur. J. Soil Sci., 52, 345–353, 2001. Cornelissen, J. H. C., van Bodegom, P. M., Aerts, R., et al.: Global negative vegetation feedback to climate warming responses of leaf litter decomposition rates in cold biomes, Ecol. Lett., 10, 619-627, 2007. Crick, J. C. and Grime, J. P.: Morphological plasticity and mineral nutrient capture in two herbaceous species of contrasted ecology, New Phytol., 107, 403–414, 1987. Curiel Yuste, J., Konôpka, B., Janssens, I. A., Coenen, K., Xiao, C. W., and Ceulemans, R.: Contrasting net primary productivity and carbon distribution between neighboring stands of \textitQuercus robur and \textitPinus sylvestris, Tree Physiol., 25, 701–712, 2005. Curtis, P. S., Hanson, P. J., Bolstad, P., Barford, C., Randolph, J. C., Schmid, H. P., and Wilson, K. B.: Biometric and eddy-covariance based estimates of annual carbon storage in five eastern North American deciduous forests, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 113, 3–19, 2002. Davidson, E. A. and Janssens, I.: Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change, Nature, 440, 165–173, 2006. Davidson, E. A., Trumbore, S. E., and Amundson, R.: Soil warming and organic carbon content, Nature, 408, 789–790, 2000. Dean, J. F. D.: Lignin analysis, in: Methods in Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, edited by: Dashek, W. V., CRC Press, Boca Raton, 199–215, 1997. Delectis Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae Agendae Academiae Sinicae Edita: Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Tomus 21: Angiospermae Dicotyledoneae Myricaceae Juglandaceae Betulaceae, Science Press, Beijing, China, 1979. Delectis Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae Agendae Academiae Sinicae Edita: Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Tomus 22: Angiospermae Dicotyledoneae, Science Press, Beijing, China, 1998. Dixon, R. K., Brown, S., Houghton, R. A., Solomon, A. M., Trexler, M. C., and Wisniewski, J.: Carbon pools and flux of global forest ecosystems, Science, 263, 185–190, 1994. Elliott, E. T. and Paustian, T. K.: Modelling the measurable or measuring the modelable: a hierarchical approach to isolating meaningful soil organic matter fractionations, in: Evaluation of Soil Organic Matter Models Using Existing Long-Term Datasets, edited by Powlson, D. S., Smith, P., Smith, J. U., NATO ASI Series~1, Global Environ. Chang., Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 38, 161–179, 1996. Eissenstat, D. M. and Van Rees, K. C. J.: The growth and function of pine roots, Ecol. Bull., 43, 76–91, 1994. Fang, J. Y., Liu, G. H., Zhu, B., Wang, X. K., and Liu, S. H.: Carbon budgets of three temperate forest ecosystems in Dongling Mt., Beijing, China, Sci. China Ser. D., 50, 92–101, 2007. FAO-WRB (ISSS-ISRIC-FAO-UNESCO): World Reference Base for Soil Resources, FAO, Wold Soil Resources Report No 84, Rome, Italy, 1998. Feng, Z. W., Wang, X. K., and Wu, G.: Biomass and Net Production of Forest Vegetation in China, Science Press, Beijing, China, 1999. Fioretto, A., Papa, S., Pellegrino, A., and Fuggi, A.: Decomposition dynamics of \textitMyrtus communis and \textitQuercus ilex leaf litter: Mass loss, microbial activity and quality change, Appl. Soil Ecol., 36, 32–40, 2007. Gill, R. A. and Jackson, R. B.: Global patterns of root turnover for terrestrial ecosystems, New Phytol., 147, 13–31, 2000. Golchin, A., Clarke, P., Oades, J. M., and Skjemstad, J. O.: The effects of cultivation on the composition of organic matter and structural stability of soils, Aust. J. Soil Res., 33, 975–993, 1995. Golchin, A., Oades, J. M., Skjemstad, J. O., and Clarke, P.: Study of free and occluded particulate organic matter in soils by solid-state $^13$CNMR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, Aust. J. Soil Res., 32, 285–309, 1994. Harmon, M. E., Baker, G. A., Spycher, G., and Greene, S.: Leaf litter decomposition in Picea/tsuga forests of Olympic National Park, Washington, USA, Forest Ecol. Manag., 31, 55–66, 1990. Hendrick, R. L. and Pregitzer, K. S.: The dynamics of fine root length, biomass, and nitrogen content in two northern hardwood ecosystems, Can. J. Forest Res., 23, 2507–2520, 1993. Henrot, J. and Robertson, G. P.: Vegetation removal in two soils of the humid tropics: effect on microbial biomass. Soil Biol. Biochem., 26, 111–116, 1994. Houghton, J. T., Ding, Y., Griggs, D. J., Noguer, M., van der Linden, P. J., Dai, X., Maskell, K., and Johnson, C. A.: IPCC 2001: Climate Change 2001: the Scientific Basis, Cambridge University Press, New York, USA, 2001. Hu, S. and van Bruggen, A. H. C.: Microbial dynamics associated with multiphasic decomposition of 14C-labeled cellulose in soil, Microb. Ecol., 33, 134–143, 1997. Janssens, I. A., Sampson, D. A., Curiel Yuste, J., Carrara, A., and Ceulemans, R.: The carbon cost of fine root turnover in a Scots pine forest, Forest Ecol. Manag., 168, 231–240, 2002. Kögel-Knabner, I., Guggenberger, G., Kleber, M., Kandeler, E., Kalbitz, K., Scheu, S., Eusterhues, K., and Leinweber, P.: Organo-mineral associations in temperate soils: integrating biology, mineralogy, and organic matter chemistry, J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sc., 171, 61–82, 2008. Konôpka, B., Noguchi, K., Sakata, T., Takahashi, M., and Konôpková, Z.: Fine root dynamics in a Japanese cedar (\textitCryptomeria japonica) plantation throughout the growing season, Forest Ecol. Manag., 225, 278–286, 2006. Kuzyakov, Y., Friedel, J. K., and Stahr, K.: Review of mechanisms and quantification of priming effects, Soil Biol. Biochem., 32, 1485–1498, 2000. Leifeld, J., Zimmermann, M., Fuhrer, J., and Conen, F.: Storage and turnover of carbon in grassland soils along an elevation gradient in the Swiss Alps, Glob. Change Biol., 15, 668–679, 2009. Li, Y., Xu, M., Zou, X. M., Shi, P. J., and Zhang, Y. Q.: Comparing soil organic carbon dynamics in plantation and secondary forest in wet tropics in Puerto Rico, Glob. Change Biol., 11, 239–248, 2005. Lin, X. X., Wu, S. L., and Che, Y. P.: Method of nylon bag for measuring decomposition rate of organic materials in arid and semi-arid and humid region, Soils, 24, 315–318, 1992. Lovell, R. D., Jarvis, S. C., and Bardgett, R. D.: Soil microbial biomass and activity in long-term grassland: effects of management changes, Soil Biol. Biochem., 27, 969–975, 1995. Lund, Z. F., Pearson, R. W., and Buchanan, G. A.: An implanted soil mass technique to study herbicide effects on root growth, Weed Sci., 18, 279–281, 1970. Luyssaert, S., Inglima, I., Jung, M., et al.: CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database, Glob. Change Biol., 13, 2509–2537, 2007. Melillo, J. M., Aber, J. D., and Muratore, J. F.: Nitrogen and lignin control of hardwood leaf litter decomposition dynamics, Ecology, 63, 621–626, 1982. Michelsen, A., Andersson, M., Jensen, M., Kjøller, A., and Gashew, M.: Carbon stocks, soil respiration and microbial biomass in fire-prone tropical grassland, woodland and forest ecosystems, Soil Biol. Biochem., 36, 1707–1717, 2004. Milchunas, D. G.: Estimating root production: Comparison of 11~methods in shortgrass steppe and review of biases, Ecosystems, 12, 1381–1402, 2009. Müller, P. E.: Recherches sur les formes naturelles de l'humus et leur influence sur la végétation et le sol (translated from danish), Ann. Sci. Agronom., 1, 85–423, 1889. Olson, J. S.: Energy storage and the balance of producers and decomposers in ecological systems, Ecology, 44, 322–331, 1963. Olsthoorn, A. F. M.: Fine root density and root biomass of two Douglas-fir stands on sandy soils in The Netherlands: 2 Periodicity of fine root growth and estimation of belowground carbon allocation, Neth. J. Agr. Sci., 39, 49–60, 1991. Post, W. M., Emanuel, W. R., Zinke, P. J., and Stangenberger, A. G.: Soil carbon pools and world life zones, Nature, 298, 156–159, 1982. Post, W. M. and Kwon, K. C.: Soil carbon sequestration and landuse change: processes and potential, Glob. Change Biol., 6, 317–327, 2000. Pregitzer, K. S., King, J. A., Burton, A. J., and Brown, S. E.: Responses of tree fine roots to temperature, New Phytol., 147, 105–115, 2000. Roberts, J.: A study of root distribution and growth in a \textitPinus sylvestris L (Scots pine) plantation in East Anglia, Plant Soil, 44, 607–621, 1976. Schoettle, A. W. and Fahey, T. J.: Foliage and fine root longevityof pines, Ecol. Bull., 43, 136–153, 1994. Schulze, K., Borken, W., Muhr, J., and Matzner, E.: Stock, turnover time and accumulation of organic matter in bulk and density fractions of a Podzol soil, Eur. J. Soil Sci., 60, 567–577, 2009. Shishido, M., Sakamoto, K., Yokoyama, H., Momma, N., and Miyashita, S.: Changes in microbial communities in an apple orchard and its adjacent bush soil in response to season, land-use, and violet root rot infestation, Soil Biol. Biochem., 40, 1460–1473, 2008. Sinsabaugh, R. L., Carreiro, M. M., and Alvarez, S.: Enzyme and microbial dynamics of litter decomposition, in: Enzymes in the Environment: Activity, Ecology and Applications, edited by: Burns, R. C., Dick, R. P., Marcel, Dekker Inc., 249–265, 2002. Six, J., Elliott, E. T., and Paustian, K.: Soil structure and soil organic matter: II. A normalized stability index and the effect of mineralogy, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 64, 1042–1049, 2000. Sollins, P., Homann, P., and Caldwell, B. A.: Stabilization and destabilization of soil organic matter: mechanisms and controls, Geoderma, 74, 65–105, 1996. Sollins, P., Spycher, G., and Glassman, C. A.: Net nitrogen mineralization from light- and heavy-fraction forest soil organic matter, Soil Biol. Biochem., 16, 31–37, 1984. Stephenson, N. L. and van Mantgem, P. J.: Forest turnover rates follow global and regional patterns of productivity, Ecol. Lett., 8, 524–531, 2005. Strickland, T. C. and Sollins, P.: Improved method for separating light and heavy fraction organic matter from soil, Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 51, 1390–1393, 1987. Subke, J. A., Hahn, V., Battipaglia, G., Linder, S., Buchmann, N., and Cotrufo, M. F.: Feedback interactions between needle litter decomposition and rhizosphere activity, Oecologia, 139, 551–559, 2004. Swanston, C. W., Caldwell, B. A., Homann, P. S., Ganio, L., and Sollins, P.: Carbon dynamics during a long-term incubation of separate and recombined density fractions from seven forest soils, Soil Biol. Biochem., 34, 1121–1130, 2002. Swanston, C. W. and Myrold, D. D.: Incorporation of nitrogen from decomposing red alder leaves into plants and soil of a recent clearcut in Oregon, Can. J. Forest Res., 27, 1496–1502, 1997. Swift, M. J., Heal, O. W., and Anderson, J. M.: Decomposition in Terrestrial Ecosystems, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, UK, 362~pp., 1979. Tan, Z., Lal, R., Owens, L., and Izaurralde, R. C.: Distribution of light and heavy fractions of soil organic carbon as related to land use and tillage practice, Soil Till. Res., 92, 53–59, 2007. Torn, M. S., Trumbore, S. E., Chadwick, O. A., Vitousek, P. M., and Hendricks, D. M.: Mineral control of soil organic matter storage and turnover, Nature, 389, 170–173, 1997. Tu, C., Koenning, S. R., and Hu, S.: Root-parasitic nematodes enhance soil microbial activities and nitrogen mineralization, Microb. Ecol., 46, 134–144, 2003. Vance E. D., Brookes, P. C., and Jenkinson, D. S.: An extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass C, Soil Biol. Biochem., 19, 703–707, 1987. Vogt, K. A., Edmonds, R. L., and Grier, C. C.: Seasonal changes in biomass and vertical distribution of mycorrhizal and fibrous-textured conifer fine roots in 23- and 180-year-old subalpine Abies amabilis stands, Can. J. Forest Res., 11, 223–229, 1981. Vogt, K. A., Grier, C. C., and Vogt, D. J.: Production, turnover, and nutrient dynamics of above- and belowground detritus of world forests, Adv. Ecol. Res., 15, 303–377, 1986. Vogt, K. A., Vogt, D. J., and Bloomfield, J.: Input of organic matter to the soil by tree roots, in: Plant Roots and their Environment, edited by: McMichael, B. L. and Persson, H., Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 171–190, 1991. Vogt, K. A., Vogt, D. J., Palmiotto, P. A., Boon, P., O'Hara, J., and Asbjornsen, H.: Review of root dynamics in forest ecosystems grouped by climate, climatic forest type and species, Plant Soil, 187, 159–219, 1996. Wardle, D. A.: A comparative assessment of factors which influence microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen levels in soil, Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos., 67, 321–358, 1992. Wardle, D. A.: Controls of temporal variability of the soil microbial biomass: a global-scale synthesis, Soil Biol. Biochem., 30, 1627–1637, 1998. Waterman, P. G. and Mole, S.: Analysis of Phenolic Plant Metabolites, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, UK, 1994. Wen, Q. X.: Study Methods of Soil Organic Matter, Agricultural Press, Beijing, China, 1984. Whalen, J. K., Bottomley, P. J., and Myrold, D. D.: Carbon and nitrogen mineralization from light- and heavy-fraction additions to soil, Soil Biol. Biochem., 32, 1345–1352, 2000. Xiao, C. W., Curiel-Yuste, J., Janssens, I. A., Roskams, P., Nachtergale, L., Carrara, A., Sanchez, B. Y., and Ceulemans, R.: Above- and belowground biomass and net primary production in a 73-year-old Scots pine forest, Tree Physiol., 23, 505–516, 2003. Xiao, C. W., Janssens, I. A., Liu, P., Zhou, Z. Y., and Sun, O. J.: Irrigation and enhanced soil carbon input effects on below-ground carbon cycling in semiarid temperate grasslands, New Phytol., 174, 835–846, 2007. Zaman, M., Di, H. J., and Cameron, K. C.: A field study of gross rates of N mineralization and nitrification and their relationships to microbial biomass and enzyme activities in soils treated with dairy effluent and ammonium fertilizer, Soil Use Manage., 15, 188–194, 1999. Zimmermann, M., Leifeld, J., Schmidt, M. W. I., Smith, P., and Fuhrer, J.: Measured soil organic matter fractions can be related to pools in the RothC model, Eur. J. Soil Sci., 58, 658–667, 2007.