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Effect of freezing-thawing on nitrogen mineralization in vegetation soils of four landscape zones of Changbai Mountain

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Abstract

• Introduction

We studied the effect of freezing-thawing on nitrogen (N) mineralization of four vegetation soils from typical vegetation zones of Changbai Mountain with a laboratory incubation experiment. The soils were treated with two levels of soil water content, representing the low and high soil water contents found during late autumn and early spring in Changbai Mountain, respectively, and underwent cycling of freezing at −5 or −25°C and thawing at 5°C up to 15 times.

• Objectives

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of freezing temperature, frequency of freezing-thawing cycles, and soil water content on N mineralization of four soils to reveal the different effects of spring and autumn freezing-thawing on soil N mineralization in Changbai Mountain.

• Results

The results showed that inorganic N in the soils increased 1.67–26.77 times after 15 cycles of freezing-thawing, but N mineralization rate decreased with increased cycling of freezing-thawing. The lower freeze temperature and higher soil water content generally enhanced soil N mineralization. The results implied that freezing-thawing of vegetation soils to increase soil N mineralization to favor the growth of plants, and also increase the possibility of runoff loss of soil nutrients, is more effective in the spring than in the autumn.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900208, 40873067, and 30800139) and the National Forestry Public Welfare Program of China (201104070). Dr. Hua Chen is supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant (DBI-0821649). We would like to thank Professor Bin Huang for useful advice in this study. We also wish to thank Guanghua Dai for assistance with soil sampling. We also want to thank Dr. Guofan Shao and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions for improving this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Wangming Zhou, Li Zhou, Bernard J. Lewis, Yujing Ye, Jie Tian, Guowei Li & Limin Dai

  2. University of Illinois at Springfield, Springfield, IL, 62703–5407, USA

    Hua Chen

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Yujing Ye, Jie Tian & Guowei Li

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  1. Wangming Zhou
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  2. Hua Chen
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  3. Li Zhou
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  4. Bernard J. Lewis
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  5. Yujing Ye
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  6. Jie Tian
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  7. Guowei Li
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  8. Limin Dai
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Correspondence to Hua Chen.

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Handling Editor: Guofan Shao

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Zhou, W., Chen, H., Zhou, L. et al. Effect of freezing-thawing on nitrogen mineralization in vegetation soils of four landscape zones of Changbai Mountain. Annals of Forest Science 68, 943–951 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-011-0100-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-011-0100-4

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