Journal
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 6, Issue 2, Pages 620-627Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1927
Keywords
C:N ratio; heterotrophic respiration; kinetic models; mineralization; Q; (10); substrate quality; warming
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Funding
- Natural Science Foundation of China [31270519, 31470506]
- Program for Kezhen Distinguished Talents in Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS [2013RC102]
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The decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) can be described by a set of kinetic principles, environmental constraints, and substrate supply. Here, we hypothesized that SOM decomposition rates (R) and its temperature sensitivity (Q(10)) would increase steadily with the N:C ratios of added substrates by alleviating N limitation on microbial growth. We tested this hypothesis by investigating SOM decomposition in both grassland and forest soils after addition of substrates with a range of N:C ratios. The results showed that Michaelis-Menten equations well fit the response of R to the N:C ratio variations of added substrates, and their coefficients of determination (R-2) ranged from 0.65 to 0.89 (P<0.01). Moreover, the maximal R, Q(10), and cumulative C emission of SOM decomposition increased exponentially with the N:C ratios of added substrates, and were controlled interactively by incubation temperature and the N:C ratios of the added substrates. We demonstrated that SOM decomposition rate and temperature sensitivity were exponentially correlated to substrate stoichiometry (N:C ratio) in both grassland and forest soils. Therefore, these correlations should be incorporated into the models for the prediction of SOM decomposition rate under warmer climatic scenarios.
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