Impact of seasonal precipitation regimes on soil nitrogen transformation in a subtropical forest: Insights from a manipulation experiment

IF 3.9 2区农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY

Plant and Soil Pub Date : 2025-02-24 DOI:10.1007/s11104-025-07311-y

Yongkang Ji, Nan Ma, Petr Heděnec, Yan Peng, Kai Yue, Jianxiao Zhu, Hui Zhang, Junjiong Shao, Lita Yi, Cuihuan Li, Qiqian Wu, Yan Li

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background and aims

Seasonal precipitation regimes can affect soil nitrogen (N) transformation rates, yet the underlying driving factors remain poorly studied.

Methods

To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a precipitation manipulation experiment in a subtropical forest in China from 2020 to 2022. We utilized the in situ resin-core method to assess soil physicochemical properties, microbial biomass, net nitrification rate (N_nit) and net N mineralization rate (N_min) under three treatments: control (CK), decreased precipitation by 50% during the dry season with extremely increased precipitation (≥ 50 mm) during the wet season (IE) and decreased precipitation by 50% during the dry season with proportionally increased precipitation (≤ 20 mm) during the wet season (IP).

Results

IE and IP significantly decreased N_nit (57.9% and 72.5%, respectively) and N_min (82.5% and 89.6%, respectively) during the dry season. However, the results were reversed during the wet season (increased by 64.3% and 79.5% and by 64.2% and 81.1%, respectively), and the effects of IP were significantly stronger than those of IE. Structural equation modeling indicated that seasonal precipitation regimes significantly affected N_nit and N_min by changing soil water content, NH₄⁺-N, microbial biomass N and soil C:N ratio. Moreover, N_nit and N_min were mainly influenced by soil physicochemical properties during the dry season, whereas microbial biomass played a more important role during the wet season.

Conclusions

Seasonal precipitation regimes can significantly affect N_nit and N_min in forest ecosystems, with the magnitude of these effects varying depending on the specific form of the seasonal precipitation regime.

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来源期刊

Plant and Soil 农林科学-农艺学

CiteScore

8.20

自引率

8.20%

发文量

543

审稿时长

2.5 months

期刊介绍： Plant and Soil publishes original papers and review articles exploring the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and that enhance our mechanistic understanding of plant-soil interactions. We focus on the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and seek those manuscripts with a strong mechanistic component which develop and test hypotheses aimed at understanding underlying mechanisms of plant-soil interactions. Manuscripts can include both fundamental and applied aspects of mineral nutrition, plant water relations, symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions, root anatomy and morphology, soil biology, ecology, agrochemistry and agrophysics, as long as they are hypothesis-driven and enhance our mechanistic understanding. Articles including a major molecular or modelling component also fall within the scope of the journal. All contributions appear in the English language, with consistent spelling, using either American or British English.