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High initial soil organic matter level combined with aboveground plant residues increased microbial carbon use efficiency but accelerated soil priming effect

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Abstract

Input of plant residue carbon (C) stimulates microbial growth and activity, and thus may alter native soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization. The partition of plant residue C between microbial growth and respiration, and priming effect on soil organic C (SOC) are affected by initial SOM levels and plant residue types. However, how the interaction between SOM level and plant residue on microbial C use efficiency (CUE) and soil priming effect remains not very clear. Here, we quantified the ratio of plant residue C converted to microbial biomass production (as MBC) over that uptake by microorganism (MBC + respiration) and the priming effect on native SOC in two soils (with low and high initial SOM levels, abbreviated as LSOM and HSOM, respectively) added with 13C-labeled maize residues (root, stem and leaf) through a 180-day incubation. Microbial CUE of maize residue was the highest in the HSOM soil with leaf residue addition, and was the lowest in LSOM soil with stem and leaf residues addition. About 37% ~ 47% of maize residue C was remained in the soil after 180 days. At the end of incubation, the positive cumulative priming effects on native SOC mineralization induced by stem and leaf residues were 23% and 30% stronger (P < 0.05) in the HSOM soil than those of the LSOM soil, respectively. In contrast the root residue addition induced the negative priming effect on native SOC in the two SOM levels of soils. Overall, microbial CUE of maize residue was higher in soil with high initial SOM level, which is likely to promote SOM formation via microbial biomass, although there are many other factors that influence SOM formation. The interactive effect between initial SOM level and plant residue quality should be considered when understanding long-term SOM storage.

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Abbreviations

C:

Carbon

N:

Nitrogen

C/N:

Ratio of carbon to nitrogen

SOM:

Soil organic matter

SOC:

Soil organic carbon

MBC:

Microbial biomass carbon

CUE:

Carbon use efficiency

LSOM:

Low level of initial soil organic matter

HSOM:

High level of initial soil organic matter

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Jun Zeng’s comments on this manuscript. China Scholarship Council is appreciated for providing financial support to the visit of Ninghui Xie to the University of Tennessee.

Funding

Funding was provided by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFD1500204), [National Natural Science Foundation of China, (Grant Nos. 41977086, 41701330) and Scientific Research Project of Liaoning, (Grant No. LSNQN202008)].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northeast Key Laboratory of Conservation and Improvement of Cultivated Land, College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Ministry of Agriculture, Shenyang, 110161, China

    Ninghui Xie, Tingting An, Shuangyi Li & Jingkuan Wang

  2. Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Ninghui Xie, Jie Zhuang, Mark Radosevich & Sean Schaeffer

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  1. Ninghui Xie
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  2. Tingting An
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  3. Jie Zhuang
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  7. Jingkuan Wang
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Xie, N., An, T., Zhuang, J. et al. High initial soil organic matter level combined with aboveground plant residues increased microbial carbon use efficiency but accelerated soil priming effect. Biogeochemistry 160, 1–15 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00936-6

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