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Nutrient availability and pH jointly constrain microbial extracellular enzyme activities in nutrient-poor tundra soils

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Abstract

Background and aims

Tundra soils, which usually contain low concentrations of soil nutrients and have a low pH, store a large proportion of the global soil carbon (C) pool. The importance of soil nitrogen (N) availability for microbial activity in the tundra has received a great deal of attention; however, although soil pH is known to exert a considerable impact on microbial activities across ecosystems, the importance of soil pH in the tundra has not been experimentally investigated.

Methods

We tested a hypothesis that low nutrient availability and pH may limit microbial biomass and microbial capacity for organic matter degradation in acidic tundra heaths by analyzing potential extracellular enzyme activities and microbial biomass after 6 years of factorial treatments of fertilization and liming.

Results

Increasing nutrients enhanced the potential activity of β-glucosidase (synthesized for cellulose degradation). Increasing soil pH, in contrast, reduced the potential activity of β-glucosidase. The soil phospholipid fatty acid concentrations (PLFAs; indicative of the amount of microbial biomass) increased in response to fertilization but were not influenced by liming.

Conclusions

Our results show that soil nutrient availability and pH together control extracellular enzyme activities but with largely differing or even opposing effects. When nutrient limitation was alleviated by fertilization, microbial biomass and enzymatic capacity for cellulose decomposition increased, which likely facilitates greater decomposition of soil organic matter. Increased soil pH, in contrast, reduced enzymatic capacity for cellulose decomposition, which could be related with the bioavailability of organic substrates.

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Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank Risto Virtanen for help in developing the ideas for this experiment, Kuisma Ranta for help during the establishment of the field experiment and Sirkka Aakkonen for help in the laboratory. This study was funded by the Academy of Finland (projects 218121, 130507 and 252323).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, 96101, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Sari Stark

  2. Finnish Forest Research Institute, Rovaniemi Research Unit, P.O. Box 16, 96301, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Minna K. Männistö

  3. Department of Biology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Anu Eskelinen

  4. Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Anu Eskelinen

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  1. Sari Stark
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Correspondence to Sari Stark.

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Stark, S., Männistö, M.K. & Eskelinen, A. Nutrient availability and pH jointly constrain microbial extracellular enzyme activities in nutrient-poor tundra soils. Plant Soil 383, 373–385 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2181-y

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