ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Soils
Volume 8 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2025.1595417
Soil nitrate drives fine root decomposition under nitrogen addition in a subtropical forest
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, China
- 2Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China
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Fine root decomposition is a key process influencing the element cycling of forest ecosystems and is sensitive to increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. However, the specific relationship between soil chemical characteristics and the nutrient release patterns of fine root decomposition under increasing N deposition is not fully understood. We conducted a decomposition experiment with three N addition levels using lower-order (order 1-3) and higher-order (order 4-5) of Castanopsis platyacantha fine root and observed its decomposition rates and nutrient dynamics from March 2016 to April 2018 in a subtropical forest of China. Soil pH, carbon fractions, and N fractions were measured and served as explanatory variables to explore the relationship with root decomposition rates through stepwise linear regression. After two years of decomposition, high N addition had a larger mass remaining than the control treatment for the lower-order root. Soil nitrate greatly explained the root decomposition rates among N treatments (R 2 = 0.712 for lower-order roots and R 2 = 0.520 for higher-order roots). Nitrogen addition did not affect root N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and Mn remaining. The remaining ratio of C/P and C/Mn in lower-order roots and C/Mn in higher-order roots were significantly increased in high N addition. Our results indicated that among different N treatments, soil nitrate content significantly affected rates of fine root decomposition in subtropical forests in China. However, N addition did not significantly affect the amount of nutrients released during root decomposition except for significantly changed the release rate of P in lower-order roots and Mn in both lower-and higher-order roots. In the future, the impact of N deposition on Mn cycling and its further effect on C storage in forests deserves attention.
Keywords: Soil chemical, root decomposition, Nitrogen addition, lower-order roots, higher-order roots, nutrient dynamics Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Soil Biology and Biochemistry,
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 07 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Chen and Yao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xingzhu Yao, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, China
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