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Soil C : N : P Stoichiometry as Related to Nitrogen Addition in a Meadow Steppe of Northern China

  • AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND SOIL FERTILITY
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Abstract

The concentrations and stoichiometry of soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) have critical implications for nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. While their high sensitivity to atmospheric N deposition is well known, it remains unclear for the soil depth-dependence of such responses to N deposition. Here, we examined the responses of soil C : N : P stoichiometry at three soil depths in the upper humus horizon (0–5, 5–10, and 10–20 cm) of Haplic Chernozem (Loamic) across a gradient of urea addition rates (0, 2, 10, 20, and 50 g N m–2 year–1) after five years treatments in a hay-harvest meadow steppe of northern China. We found that the effects of increasing N addition rates on the concentrations and stoichiometry of soil C, N and P did not depend on soil depth, though those parameters varied greatly across different soil layers. Across all soil depths, the concentrations of soil C and N increased with increasing N addition rates, but soil P concentration was not affected by N addition. The higher sensitivity of soil N than soil C to N enrichment resulted in decreasing soil C : N ratio across the N addition gradient, especially for the surface soil layer. Soil N : P ratio showed a positive response to the increases of N addition rates. The unbalanced responses of soil C, N, and P concentrations to N enrichment, as indicated by the decreases of soil C : N ratio and the increases of soil N : P ratio across the N addition gradient, highlighted the role of N enrichment in decoupling soil nutrient cycling in the temperate steppe.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank all the staff from Erguna Forest-Steppe Ecotone Research Station for their support in field work.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670455, 31971750, 31600363, 31770502, and 31700391), Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (2020–MZLH-20), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Program for ecology research group), and the National Scholarship for Overseas Studying from China Scholarship Council (CSC No. 201808210005). XTL was supported by K.C.Wong Education Foundation (GJTD-2019-10).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environment and Resources, Dalian Minzu University, 116600, Dalian, China

    X. G. Wang,  Wuyunna, X. Du, Y. T. Song, F. J. Zhang & G. W. Huo

  2. Erguna Forest-Steppe Ecotone Research Station, CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 110016, Shenyang, China

    X. T. Lü, G. J. Yang & X. G. Han

  3. Centre for Carbon, Water and Food, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, 2570, Camden NSW, Australia

    C. E. O. Coombs

  4. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China

    X. G. Han

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  1. X. G. Wang
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Wang, X.G., Wuyunna, Lü, X.T. et al. Soil C : N : P Stoichiometry as Related to Nitrogen Addition in a Meadow Steppe of Northern China. Eurasian Soil Sc. 54, 1581–1587 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229321100124

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