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Effects of long-term fertilization on peat stoichiometry and associated microbial enzyme activity in an ombrotrophic bog

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Abstract

Ombrotrophic bogs are nutrient-poor systems and important carbon (C) sinks yet there remains a dearth of information on the belowground stoichiometry of C, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), important determinants of substrate quality for microorganisms, in these systems. In this study, we quantified the C, N, P, and K concentrations of both hummock peat and dissolved matter as well as microbial extracellular enzyme activity from 0 to 10 cm depth in the long-term NPK fertilization plots at Mer Bleue bog. Greater N-loading resulted in significantly reduced C:N and greater C:P and C:K (p < 0.05) while the addition of NPK resulted in significantly lower C:P and C:K (p < 0.05) and lower C:N relative to N-only treatments but the difference in C:N was not significant (p > 0.05). Hydrolase enzyme activity followed resource allocation models with significantly suppressed N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase and phosphatase activity (p < 0.05) and enhanced β-d-glucosidase activity with greater N- and P-availability. The concentration of inhibitory phenolics was significantly greater with N-loading (p < 0.05), due in part to shifts in surface vegetation, while phenol oxidase activity was significantly suppressed by N (p < 0.05) with results suggesting greater suppression by NH4 + than NO3 −. Taken together, these results suggest that higher levels of nutrients impact both microbial substrate quality as well as the activity of microbial enzymes that are key to the decomposition process that may ultimately decrease carbon sequestration in bogs.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor for their constructive comments that significantly improved the quality of this manuscript. We also gratefully acknowledge the field and laboratory assistance of Kellie Foster, Shannon Gregory, Hélène Lalande, and Mike Dalva as well as the precipitation data set provided by Elyn Humphreys at Carleton University. A.J.P was awarded both an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a Graduate Stipend Award by the Global Environmental and Climate Change Centre (GEC3) and this research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant to T.R.M. We thank the National Capital Commission for access to Mer Bleue.

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  1. Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B9, Canada

    Andrew J. Pinsonneault, Tim R. Moore & Nigel T. Roulet

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  1. Andrew J. Pinsonneault
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Pinsonneault, A.J., Moore, T.R. & Roulet, N.T. Effects of long-term fertilization on peat stoichiometry and associated microbial enzyme activity in an ombrotrophic bog. Biogeochemistry 129, 149–164 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-016-0224-6

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