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Substrate availability reconciles the contrasting temperature response of SOC mineralization in different soil profiles

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate how changes in substrate availability (stimulating root exudate input) affect the temperature response (Q10) of soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization across different soil profiles to increase our ability to predict the response of soil organic matter dynamics to climate change.

Materials and methods

We sampled the topsoil and subsoil of two typical mineral soil profiles and one buried soil profile. Soils were incubated at 10–25 °C at 0.75 °C intervals, SOC mineralization rates were continuously measured with and without glucose addition, and Q10 was calculated.

Results and discussion

Our results showed that Q10 decreased with increasing depth in typical mineral soils, but decreased before increasing with depth in buried soil. As expected, substrate addition significantly increased Q10 across soil depths; however, the magnitude of this increase (ΔQ10) differed with soil depth and type. Unexpectedly, in typical mineral soils, ΔQ10 was higher in topsoil than in subsoils, and vice versa for buried soil. ΔQ10 was negatively correlated with initial soil substrate availability (CAI) and positively correlated with soil inorganic N.

Conclusions

Overall, our results suggested that increased substrate availability under climate change scenarios (i.e., increased root exudates with elevated CO2 concentrations) could further strengthen the temperature response of SOC mineralization, especially in soils with high inorganic N content or regions with high N deposition rates.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (32171544, 31800368, 31770655) and the Program of Youth Innovation Research Team Project (LENOM2016Q0005). Y. L is currently supported by awards from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research award DE-SC0014108 to L.K.T. We also thank Liyin L. Liang for his insightful comments on this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yuan Liu, Li Xu & Nianpeng He

  2. Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Yuan Liu & Lisa K. Tiemann

  3. Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, 15551, UAE

    Amit Kumar

  4. Center for Ecological Research, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China

    Jie Li & Nianpeng He

  5. Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Jingjing Chang

  6. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Nianpeng He

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  1. Yuan Liu
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  2. Amit Kumar
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  3. Lisa K. Tiemann
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  4. Jie Li
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Contributions

Yuan Liu: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft; writing-review & editing. Li Xu, and Nianpeng He: Conceptualization, writing-review & editing; Amit Kumar: Visualization, writing-review & editing; Lisa K. Tiemann and Jie Li writing-review & editing; Jingjing Chang: Investigation.

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Correspondence to Jie Li or Li Xu.

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Liu, Y., Kumar, A., Tiemann, L.K. et al. Substrate availability reconciles the contrasting temperature response of SOC mineralization in different soil profiles. J Soils Sediments 24, 17–31 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03602-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03602-y

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