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Purpose <p>Natural secondary forests play an important role in terrestrial carbon cycling. Different forest types have effects on soil substrate availability and soil microbial diversity, which also could have significant effects on soil carbon sequestration and soil quality in forest ecosystems. However, the mechanisms underlying the response of soil microbial biomass (SMB), extracellular enzyme activity (EEA), and their stoichiometric characteristics are still poorly understood, especially in similar soil parent materials and microclimates.</p> Materials and methods <p>In this study, three different natural secondary forests (BF: green maple + coarse birch + red birch broad-leaved forest; CBF: red birch + green maple + fir mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest; CF: fir coniferous forest) with similar soil parent materials were selected to explore how species diversity and soil substrate availability may influence the SMB, EEA, and their stoichiometric ratios.</p> Results <p>The results showed that MBC was significantly higher in BF than in CF, but MBN and MBP were less affected by forest types. CF had the highest MBC: MBN compared with CBF and BF, whilst MBC: MBP and MBN: MBP maintained relatively homeostatic. The C- related EEAs and their stoichiometric ratios varied significantly among forest types, but N- related EEAs varied slightly. Additionally, the variation of soil quality index (SQI) was similar to MBC. SMB, EEA, and their stoichiometric ratios were very responsive to the SQI, soil substrate availability, and species diversity, respectively. Redundancy analysis further showed that different SMB and EEA were mainly regulated by SQI, alkali-hydrolyzale N (AN), NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup>-N, and Shannon diversity index of the tree layer and herb layer (H’<sub>T</sub> and H’<sub>H</sub>). Furthermore, variance partitioning analysis demonstrated that AN had a greater impact on SMB and EEA compared to plant species diversity.</p> Conclusion <p>Our study emphasized that soil N availability and plant species diversity play the key roles in influencing SMB and EEA in secondary forests, which has implications for applying nitrogen fertilizer and replanting nitrogen-fixing tree species to enhance soil microbial activity and soil quality in natural secondary forests.</p>

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Influence of soil substrate availability and plant species diversity on soil microbial biomass and enzyme activity in a subalpine natural secondary forest

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月16日

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  • Tiantian Tang,
  • Zongda D. Hu,
  • Yihao Wang,
  • Jing Hu,
  • Dagang Yuan,
  • Lei Cai,
  • Qiuhong Feng,
  • Zhiyou Wen,
  • Jiujin Xiao

摘要

Purpose

Natural secondary forests play an important role in terrestrial carbon cycling. Different forest types have effects on soil substrate availability and soil microbial diversity, which also could have significant effects on soil carbon sequestration and soil quality in forest ecosystems. However, the mechanisms underlying the response of soil microbial biomass (SMB), extracellular enzyme activity (EEA), and their stoichiometric characteristics are still poorly understood, especially in similar soil parent materials and microclimates.

Materials and methods

In this study, three different natural secondary forests (BF: green maple + coarse birch + red birch broad-leaved forest; CBF: red birch + green maple + fir mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest; CF: fir coniferous forest) with similar soil parent materials were selected to explore how species diversity and soil substrate availability may influence the SMB, EEA, and their stoichiometric ratios.

Results

The results showed that MBC was significantly higher in BF than in CF, but MBN and MBP were less affected by forest types. CF had the highest MBC: MBN compared with CBF and BF, whilst MBC: MBP and MBN: MBP maintained relatively homeostatic. The C- related EEAs and their stoichiometric ratios varied significantly among forest types, but N- related EEAs varied slightly. Additionally, the variation of soil quality index (SQI) was similar to MBC. SMB, EEA, and their stoichiometric ratios were very responsive to the SQI, soil substrate availability, and species diversity, respectively. Redundancy analysis further showed that different SMB and EEA were mainly regulated by SQI, alkali-hydrolyzale N (AN), NO3−-N, and Shannon diversity index of the tree layer and herb layer (H’T and H’H). Furthermore, variance partitioning analysis demonstrated that AN had a greater impact on SMB and EEA compared to plant species diversity.

Conclusion

Our study emphasized that soil N availability and plant species diversity play the key roles in influencing SMB and EEA in secondary forests, which has implications for applying nitrogen fertilizer and replanting nitrogen-fixing tree species to enhance soil microbial activity and soil quality in natural secondary forests.