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Quantitative assessment of soil acidification in four Chinese forests affected by nitrogen deposition

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Abstract

Aims

Nitrogen (N) deposition increases risks of accelerating soil acidification, but its impact could vary depending on acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC) and clay mineralogy. We analyzed effects of N deposition on acidification in four forest soils that differed in parent materials.

Methods

We developed the method for assessing contribution of external proton input, N transformation, and plant uptake to soil acidification quantitatively in forest soils derived from loess (Qipanshan in Shenyang Liaoning), sandstone (Dinghushan in Zhaoqing Guangdong), granite, and basalt (Jianfengling in Hainan). We further estimated the acidity required for soil pH decreases using ANC (sum of cations) to predict soil pH change in forests affected by N deposition.

Results

N deposition contributed 30%, 45%, and 4% of the total proton generation through nitrification in the Qipanshan, Dinghushan, and Jianfengling soils, respectively. Heavy N deposition (50 kg N ha−1 yr−1) also increased acidification through net cation accumulation in growing plant biomass (3.0 kmolc ha−1 yr−1) in Dinghushan, where soil pH decreased by 1 unit in 30 years. Acidity could account for 56% of exchangeable Al accumulation (268 kmolc ha−1), but not for depletion of ANC or total base reserves in the Dinghushan soil. Proton generation associated with N deposition was smaller for the depletion of ANC or total base reserves required for soil pH decrease in Qipanshan and Jianfengling.

Conclusion

We found quantitatively that acidification progressed through increased nitrification and plant productivity in the forest soil due to chronic N deposition and low ANC and basic cation reserves derived from sandstone.

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Data availability

The data of soil properties are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9skg (K. Fujii).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant No. 20KK0149 and JST Fusion Oriented Research for destructive Science and Technology (FOREST) Grant No. 20351100. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan

    Kazumichi Fujii & Jinsen Zheng

  2. Crop, Livestock and Environment Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Ohwashi 1-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Jinsen Zheng

  3. Research Institute of Tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, No. 682 Guangshanyi Road, Longdong, Tianhe Guanzhou, China

    Zhang Zhou

  4. Institute of Applied Ecology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Yungting Fang

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  1. Kazumichi Fujii
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Contributions

K.F. and Y.F. designed the study. K.F. and Z.Z. established the field experiment. K.F. and Z.J. discussed the results and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kazumichi Fujii.

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Responsible Editor: Zhi-Chang Chen.

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Fujii, K., Zheng, J., Zhou, Z. et al. Quantitative assessment of soil acidification in four Chinese forests affected by nitrogen deposition. Plant Soil (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06602-0

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