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Short-term vs. long-term effects of warming and nitrogen addition on soil extracellular enzyme activity and litter decomposition in a grass-dominated system

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Abstract

Purpose

In long-term global change experiments, while cumulative treatment effects on soil and plant responses can emerge over time, comparisons between short and long-term responses can potentially be confounded with interannual variability in the environment. We added new nitrogen addition and warming plots to a pre-existing nitrogen and warming field experiment in a grass-dominated field to compare the short-term (1–2 year; new plots) versus long-term (14–15 year; old plots) treatment effects on soil microbial activity and plant litter decomposition, while controlling for the effects of interannual environmental variability.

Methods

We assessed microbial activity by assaying the potential activities of five soil extracellular enzymes: three hydrolase enzymes (N-acetyl-glucosaminidase, phosphatase and β-glucosidase) and two oxidase enzymes (phenol oxidase and peroxidase). We measured mass loss from litter bags to assess the decomposition of grass and forb litter.

Results

Warming interacted with plot age, with increased hydrolase activity in spring in response to warming only occurring in the long-term plots; increases in peroxidase activity with nitrogen addition in spring occurred for all plots. By summer, there were no significant interactions between the treatments and plot age for enzyme activity. Decreased decomposition with warming, observed for forb litter, only occurred in the long-term plots, but increased decomposition with nitrogen addition, observed for grass litter, occurred in both the long-term and short-term plots.

Conclusions

Our results confirm an intensification of treatment effects on enzyme activity and litter decomposition over time for warming, but no interactions with plot age for nitrogen addition.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

Research funding was provided to HALH via a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5B7, London, ON, Canada

    Erica Stroud, Breanna L. H. Craig & Hugh A. L. Henry

Authors
  1. Erica Stroud
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  2. Breanna L. H. Craig
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  3. Hugh A. L. Henry
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design, data collection and analysis and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hugh A. L. Henry.

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Responsible Editor: Wen-Hao Zhang.

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Stroud, E., Craig, B.L.H. & Henry, H.A.L. Short-term vs. long-term effects of warming and nitrogen addition on soil extracellular enzyme activity and litter decomposition in a grass-dominated system. Plant Soil 481, 165–177 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05625-9

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