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Huusko K, Manninen OH, Myrsky E, Stark S. Soil fungal and bacterial communities reflect differently tundra vegetation state transitions and soil physico-chemical properties. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024; 243:407-422. [PMID: 38750646 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Strong disturbances may induce ecosystem transitions into new alternative states that sustain through plant-soil interactions, such as the transition of dwarf shrub-dominated into graminoid-dominated vegetation by herbivory in tundra. Little evidence exists on soil microbial communities in alternative states, and along the slow process of ecosystem return into the predisturbance state. We analysed vegetation, soil microbial communities and activities as well as soil physico-chemical properties in historical reindeer enclosures in northernmost Finland in the following plot types: control heaths in the surrounding tundra; graminoid-dominated; 'shifting'; and recovered dwarf shrub-dominated vegetation inside enclosures. Soil fungal communities followed changes in vegetation, whereas bacterial communities were more affected by soil physico-chemical properties. Graminoid plots were characterized by moulds, pathotrophs and dark septate endophytes. Ericoid mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi were typical for control and recovered plots. Soil microbial communities inside the enclosures showed historical contingency, as their spatial variation was high in recovered plots despite the vegetation being more homogeneous. Self-maintaining feedback loops between plant functional types, soil microbial communities, and carbon and nutrient mineralization act effectively to stabilize alternative vegetation states, but once predisturbance vegetation reestablishes itself, soil microbial communities and physico-chemical properties return back towards their predisturbance state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karoliina Huusko
- Arctic Center, University of Lapland, PO Box 122, Rovaniemi, FI-96101, Finland
- Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, PO Box 3000, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland
| | - Outi H Manninen
- Arctic Center, University of Lapland, PO Box 122, Rovaniemi, FI-96101, Finland
| | - Eero Myrsky
- Arctic Center, University of Lapland, PO Box 122, Rovaniemi, FI-96101, Finland
| | - Sari Stark
- Arctic Center, University of Lapland, PO Box 122, Rovaniemi, FI-96101, Finland
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Manninen OH, Myrsky E, Tolvanen A, Stark S. N-fertilization and disturbance exert long-lasting complex legacies on subarctic ecosystems. Oecologia 2024; 204:689-704. [PMID: 38478083 PMCID: PMC10980618 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05524-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 02/03/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024]
Abstract
Subarctic ecosystems are subjected to increasing nitrogen (N) enrichment and disturbances that induce particularly strong effects on plant communities when occurring in combination. There is little experimental evidence on the longevity of these effects. We applied N-fertilization (40 kg urea-N ha-1 year-1 for 4 years) and disturbance (removal of vegetation and organic soil layer on one occasion) in two plant communities in a subarctic forest-tundra ecotone in northern Finland. Within the first four years, N-fertilization and disturbance increased the share of deciduous dwarf shrubs and graminoids at the expense of evergreen dwarf shrubs. Individual treatments intensified the other's effect resulting in the strongest increase in graminoids under combined N-fertilization and disturbance. The re-analysis of the plant communities 15 years after cessation of N-fertilization showed an even higher share of graminoids. 18 years after disturbance, the total vascular plant abundance was still substantially lower and the share of graminoids higher. At the same point, the plant community composition was the same under disturbance as under combined N-fertilization and disturbance, indicating that multiple perturbations no longer reinforced the other's effect. Yet, complex interactions between N-fertilization and disturbance were still detected in the soil. We found higher organic N under disturbance and lower microbial N under combined N-fertilization and disturbance, which suggests a lower bioavailability of N sources for soil microorganisms. Our findings support that the effects of enhanced nutrients and disturbance on subarctic vegetation persist over decadal timescales. However, they also highlight the complexity of plant-soil interactions that drive subarctic ecosystem responses to multiple perturbations across varying timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Outi H Manninen
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Pohjoisranta 4, 96100, Rovaniemi, Finland.
| | - Eero Myrsky
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Pohjoisranta 4, 96100, Rovaniemi, Finland
| | - Anne Tolvanen
- Natural Resource Institute Finland, Paavo Havaksen Tie 3, 90570, Oulu, Finland
| | - Sari Stark
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Pohjoisranta 4, 96100, Rovaniemi, Finland
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Cui Y, Peng S, Delgado-Baquerizo M, Rillig MC, Terrer C, Zhu B, Jing X, Chen J, Li J, Feng J, He Y, Fang L, Moorhead DL, Sinsabaugh RL, Peñuelas J. Microbial communities in terrestrial surface soils are not widely limited by carbon. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:4412-4429. [PMID: 37277945 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Microbial communities in soils are generally considered to be limited by carbon (C), which could be a crucial control for basic soil functions and responses of microbial heterotrophic metabolism to climate change. However, global soil microbial C limitation (MCL) has rarely been estimated and is poorly understood. Here, we predicted MCL, defined as limited availability of substrate C relative to nitrogen and/or phosphorus to meet microbial metabolic requirements, based on the thresholds of extracellular enzyme activity across 847 sites (2476 observations) representing global natural ecosystems. Results showed that only about 22% of global sites in terrestrial surface soils show relative C limitation in microbial community. This finding challenges the conventional hypothesis of ubiquitous C limitation for soil microbial metabolism. The limited geographic extent of C limitation in our study was mainly attributed to plant litter, rather than soil organic matter that has been processed by microbes, serving as the dominant C source for microbial acquisition. We also identified a significant latitudinal pattern of predicted MCL with larger C limitation at mid- to high latitudes, whereas this limitation was generally absent in the tropics. Moreover, MCL significantly constrained the rates of soil heterotrophic respiration, suggesting a potentially larger relative increase in respiration at mid- to high latitudes than low latitudes, if climate change increases primary productivity that alleviates MCL at higher latitudes. Our study provides the first global estimates of MCL, advancing our understanding of terrestrial C cycling and microbial metabolic feedback under global climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongxing Cui
- Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Shushi Peng
- Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
- Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
- Unidad Asociada CSIC-UPO (BioFun). Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain
| | | | - César Terrer
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Biao Zhu
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xin Jing
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, and College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
| | - Ji Chen
- Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
| | - Jinquan Li
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, National Observations and Research Station for Wetland Ecosystems of the Yangtze Estuary, Institute of Biodiversity Science and Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jiao Feng
- College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
| | - Yue He
- Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Linchuan Fang
- School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Daryl L Moorhead
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA
| | - Robert L Sinsabaugh
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
- CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
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Liu Y, Geng X, Wei D, Dai D. Divergence in ecosystem carbon fluxes and soil nitrogen characteristics across alpine steppe, alpine meadow and alpine swamp ecosystems in a biome transition zone. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020; 748:142453. [PMID: 33113693 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Revised: 09/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Alpine ecosystem carbon cycling is sensitive to climate change, particularly in the transition zones between biomes. Soil nitrogen conditions, including the ammonium to nitrate (NH4+/NO3-) ratio, regulate ecosystem carbon uptake by coupling carbon‑nitrogen cycle. The largest alpine pasture on Earth is distributed on the Tibetan Plateau, where alpine biome transition zones are also widely distributed. However, it is largely unknown how the soil NH4+/NO3- ratio and net ecosystem CO2 exchange vary among vegetation types in the alpine biome transition zones due to a lack of in situ field observations. Here, we investigated soil NH4+/NO3- ratio and ecosystem carbon fluxes across alpine steppe, alpine meadow and alpine swamp ecosystems in a biome transition zone on the central Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that soil NH4+/NO3- ratio was lowest in the alpine steppe (driest environment), which had the highest soil pH, and highest in the alpine swamp (wettest environment), which had the lowest soil pH. We proposed a theoretical framework describing how soil moisture regulates soil NH4+/NO3- ratio by altering both the denitrification process and soil pH. We further found that the growing season average net ecosystem CO2 exchange for the alpine steppe, alpine meadow and alpine swamp was -1.46, -1.90 and -5.43 μmol m-2 s-1, respectively. This divergence in net ecosystem CO2 exchange across the three grasslands is primarily explained by divergence in gross ecosystem photosynthesis, rather than ecosystem respiration. The air temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration (Q10) for the alpine steppe, alpine meadow and alpine swamp was 1.73 ± 0.05, 1.44 ± 0.03 and 2.43 ± 0.45, respectively. Our study highlights large differences in both soil nutrient and ecosystem carbon uptake across different vegetation types in an alpine biome transition zone. More in situ investigations in various biome transition zones are urgently needed to quantitatively understand the spatial pattern of alpine ecosystem carbon‑nitrogen cycling processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongwen Liu
- Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
| | - Xiaodong Geng
- School of Resources and Environment, Anqing Normal University, Anqing 246133, China
| | - Da Wei
- Key Laboratory of Mountain Surface Processes and Ecological Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Dongxue Dai
- College of Biology and Food Science, Hebei Normal University for Nationalities, Chengde 067000, China
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van Paassen JG, Britton AJ, Mitchell RJ, Street LE, Johnson D, Coupar A, Woodin SJ. Legacy effects of nitrogen and phosphorus additions on vegetation and carbon stocks of upland heaths. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2020; 228:226-237. [PMID: 32432343 DOI: 10.1111/nph.16671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Soil carbon (C) pools and plant community composition are regulated by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability. Atmospheric N deposition impacts ecosystem C storage, but the direction of response varies between systems. Phosphorus limitation may constrain C storage response to N, hence P application to increase plant productivity and thus C sequestration has been suggested. We revisited a 23-yr-old field experiment where N and P had been applied to upland heath, a widespread habitat supporting large soil C stocks. At 10 yr after the last nutrient application we quantified long-term changes in vegetation composition and in soil and vegetation C and P stocks. Nitrogen addition, particularly when combined with P, strongly influenced vegetation composition, favouring grasses over Calluna vulgaris, and led to a reduction in vegetation C stocks. However, soil C stocks did not respond to nutrient treatments. We found 40% of the added P had accumulated in the soil. This study showed persistent effects of N and N + P on vegetation composition, whereas effects of P alone were small and showed recovery. We found no indication that P application could mitigate the effects of N on vegetation or increase C sequestration in this system.
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Affiliation(s)
- José G van Paassen
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK
- The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK
| | - Andrea J Britton
- The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK
| | - Ruth J Mitchell
- The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK
| | - Lorna E Street
- School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, UK
| | - David Johnson
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK
| | - Andrew Coupar
- Scottish Natural Heritage, The Links, Golspie, KW10 6UB, UK
| | - Sarah J Woodin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK
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Ylänne H, Kaarlejärvi E, Väisänen M, Männistö MK, Ahonen SHK, Olofsson J, Stark S. Removal of grazers alters the response of tundra soil carbon to warming and enhanced nitrogen availability. ECOL MONOGR 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Henni Ylänne
- Arctic Center University of Lapland P.O. Box 122 Rovaniemi FI‐96101 Finland
- Department of Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu P.O. Box 3000 Oulu FI‐90100 Finland
| | - Elina Kaarlejärvi
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Umeå University Umeå SE‐90187 Sweden
- Department of Biology Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) Pleinlaan 2 Brussel B‐1050 Belgium
| | - Maria Väisänen
- Arctic Center University of Lapland P.O. Box 122 Rovaniemi FI‐96101 Finland
| | - Minna K. Männistö
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Eteläranta 55 Rovaniemi FI‐96300 Finland
| | - Saija H. K. Ahonen
- Department of Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu P.O. Box 3000 Oulu FI‐90100 Finland
| | - Johan Olofsson
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences Umeå University Umeå SE‐90187 Sweden
| | - Sari Stark
- Arctic Center University of Lapland P.O. Box 122 Rovaniemi FI‐96101 Finland
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