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Rhizosphere priming effects of soybean and cottonwood: do they vary with latitude?

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Abstract

Background and aims

Evidence from growth chamber and greenhouse experiments indicates that the rhizosphere priming effect (RPE, stimulation or suppression of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition by live roots and their rhizospheric biota) may be sensitive to environmental factors such as temperature and level of sunlight. However, little is known about potential variations of the RPE under different latitudinal regions that vary in temperature and sunlight levels.

Methods

We explored the RPE of soybean (Glycine max) and cottonwood (Populus × euramericana cv. ‘74/76’) at two different latitudinal locations under variable conditions of light and temperature for two growing seasons using a natural 13C tracer method.

Results

Different plant species at different time of season produced significantly different RPEs. The RPE of both soybean and cottonwood was small at the initial stage when the plants were small. The RPE of soybean ranged from 0.4% to135%, reached the highest level at the flowering stage and declined afterward. The RPE of cottonwood ranged from −17% to 121% and tended to increase in both growing seasons. The cumulative RPE of soybean was significantly higher than that of cottonwood at both locations and during the two growing seasons. Overall the cumulative RPE values were larger at low latitude than at high latitude. The cumulative RPE of soybean at the low latitudinal location was 1.7 times higher than at the high latitudinal location. The RPE of both plant species was significantly related to specific rhizosphere respiration, but negatively related to soil dissolved total nitrogen content.

Conclusions

The RPE of both plant species varied at both locations during the two growing seasons. Particularly for soybean, the cumulative RPE was higher at the low latitudinal location than at the high latitudinal location, possibly because of higher light levels. Our results further indicate that plant species, time of season, specific rhizosphere respiration, and soil dissolved total nitrogen are important variables in controlling the RPE. Overall, these results provide the needed support for using RPE data in a broader context.

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Abbreviations

RPE:

Rhizosphere priming effect

SOM:

Soil organic matter

PAR:

Photosynthetically active radiation

PVC:

Polyvinyl chloride

DAP:

Days after planted

CRDS:

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy

MBC:

Microbial biomass carbon

DOC:

Dissolved organic carbon

DTN:

Dissolved total nitrogen

SRR:

Specific rhizosphere respiration

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Acknowledgements

We thank National Field Research Station of Shenyang Agroecosystems for providing climate data. We also thank Mr. Cui of Heihe Branch, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences for experimental setup and sampling.

Funding

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB15030302), the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the Grant numbers of 31,470,527 and 31,470,625, and the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No. DEB-1354098).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Applied Ecology, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Tongqing Su, Peng Wang & Weixin Cheng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Tongqing Su

  3. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Feike A. Dijkstra

  4. Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Weixin Cheng

Authors
  1. Tongqing Su
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  2. Feike A. Dijkstra
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  3. Peng Wang
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  4. Weixin Cheng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weixin Cheng.

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Responsible Editor: Sven Marhan.

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Su, T., Dijkstra, F.A., Wang, P. et al. Rhizosphere priming effects of soybean and cottonwood: do they vary with latitude?. Plant Soil 420, 349–360 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3396-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-017-3396-5

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