Abstract
Purpose
Plant roots and associated mycelia play a crucial role in soil nitrogen (N) cycling. However, the underlying mechanisms by which roots and mycelia affect soil N transformation in karst soil remain unclear.
Methods
By using ingrowth cores, the present study focused on elucidating the underlying mechanisms by which roots and mycelia impact soil N transformation in a Cryptomeria fortune plantation in a karst region.
Results
Both roots and mycelia significantly increased the net N mineralization rate, with increases in magnitude of 9% and 25%, respectively, in soils of the Cryptomeria fortune plantation. Moreover, we found that this increase in N mineralization coincided with significant increases in the microbial biomass and extracellular enzyme activities, suggesting that both roots and mycelia could enhance N mineralization through their effect on microbial processes. Moreover, mycelia induced a significant decrease in metal-mineral organic complexes, on which roots had only a minor net effect, implying that mycelia could enhance N mineralization via their effects on the breakage of mineral-associated N complexes.
Conclusions
These combined results suggest that plant roots and mycelia accelerate soil N transformation through different mechanisms. In particular, mycelia presumably function through both biotic processes (microbial mineralization) and abiotic processes (disruption of stabilized mineral-proteinaceous complexes), whereas roots mainly function through biotic processes. Given that roots and mycelia are belowground symbionts, these two mechanisms are proposed to function together to promote N transformation and thus have significant ecological ramifications for N cycling in karst ecosystems.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [Yuan Y.S.], upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31960271), Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province, China (No. [2020]1Y075, [2019]1421 and [2018]133), the construction project of Key Laboratory of State Ethnic Affairs Commission ([2020] No. 91 of DDA office, i.e., The karst environmental geological hazard prevention laboratory of Guizhou Minzu University).
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Yuan, Y., Gu, D., Huang, Z. et al. Plant roots and associated mycelia enhance soil N transformation through different mechanisms in a karst plantation. J Soils Sediments 23, 1687–1697 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03431-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03431-z