Impacts and mechanisms of carbon to nitrogen ratios of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata on soil priming effect

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2024.0271

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims Litter quality plays an important role in regulating the magnitude and direction of soil priming effect. However, it remains unclear how the inputs of litter with different carbon to nitrogen ratios (C:N) affect soil priming effect.
Methods Cunninghamia lanceolata seedlings were ¹³C-labeled. To obtain low and high C:N of C. lanceolata leaves, stems, and roots, one half of the C. lanceolata seedlings were fertilized and another half were unfertilized. The priming effect is quantified by the difference in CO₂ emissions from native soil organic carbon (SOC) between soil amended with and without litter. Moreover, this research investigated the impacts of the input of low C:N and high C:N C. lanceolata leaves, stems, and roots on the soil priming effect and to clarify the mechanism via measuring soil microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and soil available nitrogen content.
Important findings After 180 days of incubation, the input of C. lanceolata leaves induced a positive priming effect at the early stage of incubation. However, over the entire incubation period (180 days), it had no significant effect on SOC mineralization. The input of low C:N of C. lanceolata roots decreased SOC mineralization by 10.1% and induced a negative priming effect. However, the addition of C. lanceolata roots high C:N of as well as the C. lanceolata stems had no significant effect on SOC mineralization. Different C:N (high vs. low) of the same organ of C. lanceolata had no significant effect on soil priming effect. The additions of litter with different C:N did not significantly affect soil microbial biomass carbon content and related C metabolic enzyme activities. The structural equation model showed that priming effect was mainly affected by ¹³C-microbial biomass carbon (MBC), soil available nitrogen, microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) and β-glucosidase. These factors could explain 30% of the variation of priming effect. Moreover, all factors (except for ¹³C-MBC) were negatively correlated with soil priming effect.

Key words: priming effect, litter quality, carbon to nitrogen ratio, soil organic carbon mineralization, Cunninghamia lanceolata

HUANG Zhi-Jun, GAN Zi-Ying, ZHU Jia-Xin, QIU Qing-Yan, HU Ya-Lin. Impacts and mechanisms of carbon to nitrogen ratios of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata on soil priming effect[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2025, 49(10): 1710-1720.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2024.0271

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Figures/Tables 7

Table 1 Basic physicochemical properties of soil (0-20 cm) in Wuyi Mountain conifer-broadleaf mixed forest (mean ± SE, n = 4)

土壤理化指标 Properties of soil	数值 Value
土壤有机碳含量 Soil organic carbon content (g·kg^-1)	18.89 ± 0.63
全氮含量 Total nitrogen content (g·kg^-1)	1.68 ± 0.04
pH	5.15 ± 0.02
硝态氮含量 NO₃^--N content (mg·kg^-1)	6.53 ± 0.10
铵态氮含量 NH₄⁺-N content (mg·kg^-1)	2.71 ± 0.11
微生物生物量碳含量 Microbial biomass carbon content (mg·kg^-1)	469.4 ± 34.2
微生物生物量氮含量 Microbial biomass nitrogen content (mg·kg^-1)	157.9 ± 13.1
土壤水分含量 Soil moisture (%)	24.30 ± 0.39

Table 2 Basic chemical properties of roots, stems and leaves of Cunninghamia lanceolata in Wuyi Mountain conifer-broadleaf mixed forest (mean ± SE, n = 4)

器官 Tissue	处理 Treatment	碳(C)含量 Carbon (C) content (g·kg^-1)	氮(N)含量 Nitrogen (N) content (g·kg^-1)	C:N	碳稳定同位素组成 Carbon stable isotope composition (δ¹³C) (‰)	纤维素含量 Cellulose content (g·kg^-1)
根 Root	不施肥 Unfertilized	468.36 ± 2.58^a	16.82 ± 0.91^cd	28.24 ± 1.79^cd	216.33 ± 14.50^d	1.19 ± 0.05^d
根 Root	施肥 Fertilized	441.61 ± 3.63^d	27.73 ± 0.78^a	16.97 ± 0.42^e	260.52 ± 21.14^d	1.41 ± 0.07^bc
茎 Stem	不施肥 Unfertilized	462.22 ± 4.25^ab	11.48 ± 1.21^e	42.49 ± 5.43^a	248.05 ± 6.23^d	1.70 ± 0.16^a
茎 Stem	施肥 Fertilized	443.08 ± 8.45^cd	20.57 ± 1.51^bc	22.03 ± 1.67^de	358.10 ± 18.25^c	1.52 ± 0.10^ab
叶 Leaf	不施肥 Unfertilized	453.07 ± 9.42^bc	13.63 ± 2.10^de	36.58 ± 5.56^bc	412.62 ± 18.82^b	1.27 ± 0.07^cd
叶 Leaf	施肥 Fertilized	440.37 ± 5.69^d	21.11 ± 1.32^b	21.24 ± 1.52^de	600.03 ± 20.18^a	1.48 ± 0.14^b

Fig. 1 Effects of different C:N of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata litter on soil total CO2 emissions, litter- and soil-derived CO2 emissions (mean ± SE, n = 4). Different lowercase and uppercase letters in B indicate significant differences in litter-derived and soil-derived CO2 emissions under different treatments, respectively (p < 0.05). CK, control; GD low C:N root; GG, high C:N root; JD, low C:N stem; JG, high C:N stem; YD, low C:N leaf; YG, high C:N leaf. C:N, carbon to nitrogen ratio; O, organ; T, time。*** represent the factor has significant effect on the index at p < 0.001 level; ns represents no significant effect (p > 0.05).

Fig. 2 Effects of different C:N of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata litter on soil priming effect (mean ± SE, n=4). GD, low C:N root; GG, high C:N root; JD, low C:N stem; JG, high C:N stem; YD, low C:N leaf; YG, high C:N leaf. C:N, carbon to nitrogen ratio; O, organ; T, time。***represent the factor has significant effect on the index at p < 0.001 level; ns represents no significant effect (p > 0.05). NPE in B indicate significant negative priming effect.

Fig. 3 Effects of different C:N of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata litter on soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), 13C-labeled MBC (13C-MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) and available nitrogen contents (mean ± SE, n = 4). Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences under different treatments (p < 0.05). CK, control; GD, low C:N root; GG, high C:N root; JD, low C:N stem; JG, high C:N stem; YD, low C:N leaf; YG, high C:N leaf. C:N, carbon to nitrogen ratio; O, organ; T, time. *** and ** represent the factor has significant effect on the index at p < 0.001 and p < 0.01 level; ns represents no significant effect (p > 0.05).

Fig. 4 Effects of different C:N of different organs of Cunninghamia lanceolata litter on the activities of β-glucosidase, cellulase, β-1,4-N-acetyl-glucosidase, phenol oxidase and catalase (mean ± SE, n = 4). Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences under different treatments (p < 0.05). CK, control; GD, low C:N root; GG, high C:N root; JD, low C:N stem; JG, high C:N stem; YD, low C:N leaf; YG, high C:N leaf. C:N, carbon to nitrogen ratio. O, organ; T, time. ***, ** and * represent the factor has significant effect on the index at p < 0.001, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 level, respectively; ns represents no significant effect (p > 0.05).

Fig. 5 Structural equation modelling of soil priming effect. Solid and dashed lines indicate positive and negative paths, respectively. The thickness of the line indicates the strength of the causal relationship. The numbers adjacent to the arrows represent the normalized path coefficient of the relationship (*, p < 0.05; * *, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001). 13C-MBC, 13C-labeled microbial biomass carbon; MBC, microbial biomass carbon; MBN, microbial biomass nitrogen. The total variance explained by the model is expressed as R2. AGFI, adjusted goodness of fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation.

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