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Negative Feedback by Vegetation on Soil Organic Matter Decomposition in a Coastal Wetland

  • Degradation and Ecological Restoration of Estuarine Wetlands in China
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Abstract

There has been much debate about the external drivers that affect the decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM). Particularly, the feedback mechanisms between SOM and mineral weathering are poorly understood. We used the cotton strip assay combined with measurements of water table, pore water salinity, and soil properties along a landscape-scale gradient to study these mechanisms. The results revealed that cotton tensile strength loss (CTSL) rates ranged from 2.0% day−1 to 4.6% day−1 and varied significantly among sites and depths. A multiple regression model revealed that the corelation between the CTSL and submersion duration (SD) was positive when the chemical index of alteration (CIA) was ~65% and negative over most of the range of SD when the CIA was ~45%. The results suggest that the hydrological conditions induced by tidal effects endanger the stocks of carbon sequestered in coastal wetland soils. However, sites with CTSL rates as high as 4.0–5.0% day−1 tended to gain more nutrients than sites with lower CTSL rates. The fixation of atmospheric CO2 via plant growth may therefore be stimulated in coastal wetland soils by the recycling of mineral nutrients via enhanced weathering. The result is a negative feedback of the ecotone on SOM decomposition.

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Acknowledgements

This study was jointly funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFE0109600), Ministry of Land and Resources program: “Special foundation for scientific research on public causes” (Grant No. 201111023), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41240022 & 40872167), China Geological Survey (Grant Nos. DD20189503, GZH201200503 and DD20160144), and in kind contributions from Funding by Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research and the Danish Council for Independent Research – Natural Sciences (Project 4002-00333B) via a grant to HB. We thank Guangming Zhao, Hongming Yuan, Jin Wang, Xigui Ding and other staff of our working group for field and laboratory assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental and Biogeochemistry (eBig), School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Qingyuan Lu

  2. Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, People’s Republic of China

    Lixin Pei & Siyuan Ye

  3. Key Laboratory of Coastal Wetlands Biogeosciences, Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, China Geologic Survey, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China

    Lixin Pei & Siyuan Ye

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, College of the Coast & Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803-4110, USA

    Edward A. Laws

  5. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000C, Aarhus, Denmark

    Hans Brix

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  1. Qingyuan Lu
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Correspondence to Siyuan Ye.

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Lu, Q., Pei, L., Ye, S. et al. Negative Feedback by Vegetation on Soil Organic Matter Decomposition in a Coastal Wetland. Wetlands 40, 2785–2797 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01350-0

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