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Effects of land use change on soil gross nitrogen transformation rates in subtropical acid soils of Southwest China

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Abstract

Land use change affects soil gross nitrogen (N) transformations, but such information is particularly lacking under subtropical conditions. A study was carried out to investigate the potential gross N transformation rates in forest and agricultural (converted from the forest) soils in subtropical China. The simultaneously occurring gross N transformations in soil were quantified by a 15N tracing study under aerobic conditions. The results showed that change of land use types substantially altered most gross N transformation rates. The gross ammonification and nitrification rates were significantly higher in the agricultural soils than in the forest soils, while the reverse was true for the gross N immobilization rates. The higher total carbon (C) concentrations and C / N ratio in the forest soils relative to the agricultural soils were related to the greater gross N immobilization rates in the forest soils. The lower gross ammonification combined with negligible gross nitrification rates, but much higher gross N immobilization rates in the forest soils than in the agricultural soils suggest that this may be a mechanism to effectively conserve available mineral N in the forest soils through increasing microbial biomass N, the relatively labile organic N. The greater gross nitrification rates and lower gross N immobilization rates in the agricultural soils suggest that conversion of forests to agricultural soils may exert more negative effects on the environment by N loss through NO3 − leaching or denitrification (when conditions for denitrification exist).

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Acknowledgments

The project was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101605, 31260503, 31160413). We are grateful to Prof. Dr. J. B. Zhang for his technical assistance.

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All coauthors of this paper promise to comply with the Ethical Rules and consent to submit the manuscript to your journal explicitly.

Sources of funding

The project was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101605, 31260503, 31160413).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. No human participants and/or animals are involved in the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China

    Yongbo Xu

  2. Environmental Futures Research Institute and School of Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Zhihong Xu

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  1. Yongbo Xu
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Correspondence to Yongbo Xu.

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Responsible editor: Hailong Wang

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Xu, Y., Xu, Z. Effects of land use change on soil gross nitrogen transformation rates in subtropical acid soils of Southwest China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 10850–10860 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4262-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4262-8

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