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Long-term nitrogen addition consistently decreased litter decomposition rates in an alpine grassland

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Abstract

Aims

Litter decomposition is a crucial component of nutrient recycling. Short-term nitrogen (N) deposition has been shown to influence litter decomposition in temperate steppe with significant variability due to differences in atmospheric N deposition, species identity, and experimental duration. Therefore, the effect of N addition, especially long-term, on litter decomposition in alpine grassland still needs further investigation.

Methods

To address these knowledge gaps, we examined the influence of long-term N addition on litter decomposition, taking advantage of a field experiment with five N addition levels (0, 10, 30, 90, and 150 kg N ha−1 yr−1) with a meta-analysis, which has been running for 11 years in an alpine grassland, Northwest China.

Results

Long-term N addition consistently decreased litter decomposition rates, and N negative effect became stronger with the increasing N addition rates. Reduced litter decomposition rates were related to lower soil enzymes activities. Litter decomposition rates were strongly correlated with litter quality, but weakly correlated with soil quality, but which suggested that litter quality and soil quality played important role in regulating litter decomposition. Furthermore, a regional meta-analysis revealed that N addition accelerated litter decomposition when all data were averaged. Although N addition indirectly increased litter decomposition, it had no direct effect on decomposition. However, the direction and degree of the direct effect of N on litter decomposition were regulated by N addition rate, experimental duration and form of N fertilizer.

Conclusions

Overall, these results demonstrated that long-term N addition decreased litter decomposition and N negative effect increased over time.

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Data availability

All data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the staff of the Bayinbuluk Grassland Ecosystem Research Station, Chinese Academy of Science, China, for their help in field experiments. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32101345).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Grassland Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, 030801, China

    Yuan Su & Changhui Wang

  2. Shanxi Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecological Protection and Native Grass Germplasm Innovation, College of Grassland Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu 030801, China

    Yuan Su & Changhui Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Jiajia Le, Wenxuan Han, Kaihui Li & Xuejun Liu

  4. Bayinbuluk Grassland Ecosystem Research Station, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bayinbuluk, 841314, China

    Jiajia Le & Kaihui Li

  5. Beijing Key Laboratory of Farmland Soil Pollution Prevention and Remediation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Yuanmingyuan West Road #2, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China

    Wenxuan Han & Xuejun Liu

  6. Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Kaihui Li

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  1. Yuan Su
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Contributions

Xuejun Liu and Kaihui Li contributed to the study conception and design. Yuan Su and Jiajia Le performed data collection and analysis. Wenxuan Han and Changhui wang revised and improved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kaihui Li or Xuejun Liu.

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Su, Y., Le, J., Han, W. et al. Long-term nitrogen addition consistently decreased litter decomposition rates in an alpine grassland. Plant Soil 479, 495–509 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05537-8

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