TY - JOUR
T1 - Fine root biomass mediates soil fauna community in response to nitrogen addition in poplar plantations (Populus deltoids) on the east coast of China
AU - Bian, Haixue
AU - Geng, Qinghong
AU - Xiao, Hanran
AU - Shen, Caiqin
AU - Li, Qian
AU - Cheng, Xiaoli
AU - Luo, Yiqi
AU - Ruan, Honghua
AU - Xu, Xia
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This study is financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0600204), the Recruitment Program for Young Professionals, the Jiangsu Specially Appointed Professors Program, the Natural Science Key Fund for Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province of China (17KJA180006), the Six Talent Peaks Program of Jiangsu Province (JY-041 & TD-XYDXX-006), the Nanjing Forestry University Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (the “5151” Talent Program), the Jiangsu Collegiate Science and Technology Fund for the Excellent Innovative Research Teams, and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.
PY - 2019/2/3
Y1 - 2019/2/3
N2 - Soil fauna is critical for maintaining ecosystem functioning, and its community could be significantly impacted by nitrogen (N) deposition. However, our knowledge of how soil-faunal community composition responds to N addition is still limited. In this study, we simulated N deposition (0, 50, 100, 150, and 300 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) to explore the effects of N addition on the total and the phytophagous soil fauna along the soil profile (0-10, 10-25, and 25-40 cm) in poplar plantations (Populus deltoids) on the east coast of China. Ammonium nitrate (NH 4 NO 3 ) was dissolved in water and sprayed evenly under the canopy with a backpack sprayer to simulate N deposition. Our results showed that N addition either significantly increased or decreased the density (D) of both the total and the phytophagous soil fauna (D total and D p ) at low or high N addition rates, respectively, indicating the existence of threshold effects over the range of N addition. However, N addition had no significant impacts on the number of groups (G) and diversity (H) of either the total or the phytophagous soil fauna (G total , G p and H total , H p ). With increasing soil depth, D total , D p , G total , and G p largely decreased, showing that the soil fauna have a propensity to aggregate at the soil surface. H total and H p did not significantly vary along the soil profile. Importantly, the threshold effects of N addition on D total and D p increased from 50 and 100 to 150 kg N ha -1 year -1 along the soil profile. Fine root biomass was the dominant factor mediating variations in D total and D p . Our results suggested that N addition may drive changes in soil-faunal community composition by altering belowground food resources in poplar plantations.
AB - Soil fauna is critical for maintaining ecosystem functioning, and its community could be significantly impacted by nitrogen (N) deposition. However, our knowledge of how soil-faunal community composition responds to N addition is still limited. In this study, we simulated N deposition (0, 50, 100, 150, and 300 kg N ha -1 year -1 ) to explore the effects of N addition on the total and the phytophagous soil fauna along the soil profile (0-10, 10-25, and 25-40 cm) in poplar plantations (Populus deltoids) on the east coast of China. Ammonium nitrate (NH 4 NO 3 ) was dissolved in water and sprayed evenly under the canopy with a backpack sprayer to simulate N deposition. Our results showed that N addition either significantly increased or decreased the density (D) of both the total and the phytophagous soil fauna (D total and D p ) at low or high N addition rates, respectively, indicating the existence of threshold effects over the range of N addition. However, N addition had no significant impacts on the number of groups (G) and diversity (H) of either the total or the phytophagous soil fauna (G total , G p and H total , H p ). With increasing soil depth, D total , D p , G total , and G p largely decreased, showing that the soil fauna have a propensity to aggregate at the soil surface. H total and H p did not significantly vary along the soil profile. Importantly, the threshold effects of N addition on D total and D p increased from 50 and 100 to 150 kg N ha -1 year -1 along the soil profile. Fine root biomass was the dominant factor mediating variations in D total and D p . Our results suggested that N addition may drive changes in soil-faunal community composition by altering belowground food resources in poplar plantations.
KW - Community structure
KW - Food resources
KW - N addition
KW - Poplar plantations
KW - Soil fauna
KW - Soil profile
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061244273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85061244273&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/f10020122
DO - 10.3390/f10020122
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85061244273
SN - 1999-4907
VL - 10
JO - Forests
JF - Forests
IS - 2
M1 - 122
ER -