Miscanthus litter additions induce a successional change in the soil micro-food web with apparent decreases in soil nitrogen

Abstract

The rapid loss of soil carbon (C) from cultivated peatland soils is leading to the use of high lignin, C-rich litter amendments as a potential solution to slow C losses. These chemically recalcitrant litter inputs are expected to cause microbial nitrogen (N) immobilization as a result of changes in the soil micro-food web, but whether bioavailable N is altered by litter as it is decomposed by the micro-food web remains unclear. We monitored changes in the soil nematode, fungal, and bacterial communities over time and across space (the rhizosphere and bulk soil) after field-applying different types of ligneous litter from miscanthus, ash, willow, or larch to a cultivated peatland soil. We found that miscanthus grass (C:N = 118) induced succession from fast-growing nematodes (cp-1) to slower-growing, cp-3 and cp-4 nematodes and this corresponded to reduced N availability. This lower soil N was likely due to relatively higher microbial biomass we observed with miscanthus, combined with a decrease in fast-growing bacterivores, limiting N mineralization from nematode grazing. We did not observe strong effects on the soil micro-food web or microbial biomass N for the other woody litters that had much higher C:N. This indicates that the changes in nematode community composition following ligneous litter inputs and subsequent impacts on soil N depend on litter type but are independent of litter C:N. Miscanthus amendments also corresponded to the lowest lettuce yield of all the amendments and thus caution is raised when using miscanthus straw as a widely-applied litter. Our results provide a useful reference to predict the effect of litter amendments on cultivated peatland soils through soil micro-food web dynamics, and bioavailable N for the crop.