Plant Soil Environ., 2014, 60(4):170-176 | DOI: 10.17221/39/2014-PSE

Effect of litter type on soil microbial parameters and dissolved organic carbon in a laboratory microcosm experimentOriginal Paper

W. Li1, K.W. Pan1, N. Wu1,2, J.C. Wang1, Y.J. Wang1, L. Zhang1
1 Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization, CAS and Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation, Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, P.R. China
2 International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal

A laboratory microcosm experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of the four single-species (Pinus tabulaeformis (Pt), Pinus radiata (Pr), Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Cj), and Ostryopsis davidiana (Od) litters from southwestern China and mixed pine-broadleaf (Pt + Cj, Pr + Cj, Pt + Od, Pr + Od) litters on soil microbial activities and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Microcosms with the local typical soil and litterbags containing the eight litter types were incubated with 60% water field capacity for 84 days at 20°C. The results showed that the dynamics of soil microbial parameters and DOC were influenced by the litter types with different initial chemical quality. Due to their initial poor nutrient contents, the Pt and Pr litter treatments always showed lower soil microbial activities and DOC at each sampling compared with the Cj and Od litter treatments. However, compared with the single-species pine litter treatments, the inclusion of broadleaf Cj or Od litter into pine litter significantly increased soil microbial activities, and the concentrations of soil DOC during the whole incubation process. The current work thus provided a good implication for plantation management that it should be appropriate to consider Cj as an ameliorative species or retain Od in the pine plantations to improve soil conditions.

Keywords: soil labile organic carbon; soil dehydrogenase activity; soil β-glucosidase activity; single-species and mixed-species litter

Published: April 30, 2014  Show citation

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Li W, Pan KW, Wu N, Wang JC, Wang YJ, Zhang L. Effect of litter type on soil microbial parameters and dissolved organic carbon in a laboratory microcosm experiment. Plant Soil Environ. 2014;60(4):170-176. doi: 10.17221/39/2014-PSE.
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