Article
Forestry
Yukiko Abe, Hiroyuki Kurokochi, Kazutoshi Yoshitake, Ryo Yonezawa, Shuichi Asakawa, Takeshi Tange
Summary: This study investigated the composition of soil bacterial communities in a Cryptomeria japonica plantation at different times after clear-cutting, revealing variations in the frequencies of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria, which are affected by soil temperature and the presence of organic layers post-clear-cutting.
Article
Ecology
Sara Fareed Mohamed Wahdan, Li Ji, Martin Schadler, Yu-Ting Wu, Chakriya Sansupa, Benjawan Tanunchai, Francois Buscot, Witoon Purahong
Summary: This study investigates the decomposition of wheat straw under future climate conditions and reveals that future climate will accelerate the decay rate of straw only in the early phases of decomposition. It also shows that the projected climate change will increase the abundance of saprotrophic fungi in decomposing wheat straw, and that the impact of future climate on microbial community assembly and interaction networks will depend on the decomposition phase. The study concludes that the impact of future climate on straw decay and microbial traits is limited to the early phases of decomposition.
Article
Soil Science
Inaki Odriozola, Diana Navratilova, Petra Tlaskalova, Tereza Klinerova, Zita Cervenkova, Petr Kohout, Tomas Vetrovsky, Pavla Cizkova, Martin Stary, Petr Baldrian
Summary: Our study found that fungal biomass and community composition were vertically stratified in the study area. Vegetation was a key predictor of fungal community composition across all ecological guilds of fungi and habitats. Additionally, pH and climatic factors also played significant roles in predicting fungal community composition and biomass.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Jinping Wang, Rongzhen Huang, Liqin Zhu, Hongzhi Guan, Lijing Lin, Huanying Fang, Mengjia Yang, Shaohui Ji, Xianhua Zou, Xin Li
Summary: The study found that the bacterial diversity in biological soil crusts is high, dominated by Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi. Below the BSCs, biochar addition has some impact on soil bacterial communities but minimal effect on soil fungal communities.
Article
Forestry
Ren Liu, Yang Zhang, Xiao-Fei Hu, Songze Wan, Huimin Wang, Chao Liang, Fu-Sheng Chen
Summary: The study found that adding litter to the soil generally has positive effects, while removing litter may have different effects on soil properties, especially on soil nutrients, microbial communities, and enzymatic activities. In addition, enzymatic stoichiometry is more influenced by soil depth, and soil microbial communities and enzymatic activities exhibit asynchronous responses with increasing profile depth.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Huiyun Dong, Shuai Shao, Chenfei Liang, Qiufang Xu, Junhui Chen, Hua Qin
Summary: Bamboo forest invasion alters litter composition and significantly impacts soil microbial community.
Article
Forestry
Chengfu Zhang, Qingxia Zhao, Yinmei Cai, Tao Zhang, Limin Zhang, Tengbing He
Summary: Variations in aboveground litter input caused by global changes significantly alter soil N cycling in forest ecosystems. This study quantified the responses of soil N transformation rates to litter manipulation in a Pinus massoniana plantation, and revealed the effect of root exudation on soil N transformations. Litter removal and addition treatments had little impact on soil C and N concentrations, microbial biomass, soil enzyme activity, and net N mineralization rates, but increased net N nitrification rates. Additionally, litter removal significantly decreased root C exudation rates, while litter addition had no significant effects on root C exudation rates. The study highlights the importance of root exudates in regulating underground N biochemical processes and provides new evidence for understanding the influence of litter inputs on soil N cycling.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Ying Wang, Liguo Dong, Min Zhang, Yongxing Cui, Xiaoxiong Bai, Bin Song, Jiawen Zhang, Xuan Yu
Summary: During plantation development, the microbial community structures in different soil compartments were influenced by changes in soil properties and stand age, and the assembly mechanisms of soil microbial communities were mainly governed by dispersal limitation. The keystone species in the rhizosphere played important roles in soil nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. The complexity of bacterial networks increased along the plantation chronosequence, while fungal network complexity showed no clear age-related trend but was higher in the rhizosphere than bulk soils.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Martin Paumelle, Florence Donnadieu, Muriel Joly, Pascale Besse-Hoggan, Joan Artigas
Summary: The research found that periphyton enriched water with oxygen and labile dissolved organic carbon forms, but these labile organic carbon sources did not stimulate leaf-litter decomposition, rather they decoupled microbial decomposer activity from particulate organic matter to dissolved organic matter through negative priming.
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Dan Naylor, Ryan McClure, Janet Jansson
Summary: Microbial communities in soil exhibit variability with depth, impacting soil health and carbon cycling. However, they are often neglected in research studies.
Article
Microbiology
Marie E. Kroeger, M. Rae DeVan, Jaron Thompson, Renee Johansen, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Deanna Lopez, Andreas Runde, Thomas Yoshida, Brian Munsky, Sanna Sevanto, Michaeline B. N. Albright, John Dunbar
Summary: Microbial composition plays a crucial role in driving carbon flow variation during leaf litter decomposition, with common microbial traits across multiple litter types. The quantity of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at the end of the decomposition period is influenced by microbial composition.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Guoyou Li, Shaoxian Zhu, Jiang Long, Honglin Mao, Yonghong Dong, Yan Hou
Summary: Soil microbial diversity and functions have a great impact on plant growth and development. The interactions between tea trees and soil microbiota can be linked with planting patterns and management strategies, whose effects on soil microbial community structure and metabolites are still unclear. This study compared the soil microbial composition and metabolites among three tea production systems and found significant differences among them. The changes in soil microorganisms caused by management and planting patterns may affect soil quality through corresponding changes in metabolites.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Petr Capek, Michal Choma, Eva Kastovska, Karolina Tahovska, Helen C. Glanville, Hana Santruckova
Summary: Soil microbial biomass is assumed to have stable chemical composition but observations suggest that it is likely changing with specific growth rate. In this study, a sub-Microbial model is proposed to explicitly represent these composition changes. The model outperforms simpler models in explaining the variability in microbial biomass composition. The results highlight the importance of accurately determining soil microbial biomass and its physiological characteristics for predicting ecosystem development.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Nisarga Kodadinne Narayana, William L. Kingery, Mark W. Shankle, Shankar Ganapathi Shanmugam
Summary: The response of soil microbial communities to management practices is complex and depends on various environmental factors. Cover crops and fertilizer sources significantly influenced soil bacterial diversity, while cover crops influenced soil fungal community differences. Soil pH and easily extractable glomalin-related soil proteins were correlated with bacterial communities and soil aggregate stability.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Muhammad Tayyab, Ziqi Yang, Caifang Zhang, Waqar Islam, Wenxiong Lin, Hua Zhang
Summary: Sugarcane monoculture leads to soil problems such as acidification and degradation, reducing soil fertility and beneficial microbes. Analysis showed the impact of this cultivation method on soil and microbial communities.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Amgaa Batbaatar, Cameron N. Carlyle, Edward W. Bork, Scott X. Chang, James F. Cahill
Summary: In an experiment conducted in seven North American temperate grasslands, reducing growing season precipitation by 45% for four consecutive years did not lead to consistent or progressive effects on plant community structure and biomass components. Above-ground net primary productivity initially declined but exceeded the ambient treatment in the fourth year, while root and litter biomass remained stable throughout the study. Changes in graminoid cover rebounded by the end of the experiment, contributing to differences in species composition between treatments.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xiaofei Lv, Bin Ma, Lei Sun, Yanjiang Cai, Scott X. Chang
Summary: The study investigated the impact of no-till, tillage reversal, and tillage reversal with nitrogen fertilization on bacterial communities in a Gray Luvisol in west-central Alberta, Canada. The TRN treatment increased the relative abundance of certain bacterial taxa with nitrifying functions, while decreasing taxa with denitrifying functions compared to the TR treatment. The bacterial community in the TRN treatment showed greater inter-annual variations and altered functions compared to the NT and TR treatments.
JOURNAL OF SOILS AND SEDIMENTS
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Zhengfeng An, Edward W. Bork, Xinyi Duan, Cole D. Gross, Cameron N. Carlyle, Scott X. Chang
Summary: This study quantified the carbon stocks and economic value of forests in agroforestry systems in central Alberta, Canada, and estimated the annual loss of carbon in hedgerow and silvopasture forests. The results highlight the importance of retaining existing and establishing new agroforestry systems for increasing carbon sequestration and emphasize the impact of agroforest loss on reducing carbon storage.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY BIOENERGY
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Jean Damascene Harindintwali, Leilei Xiang, Fang Wang, Scott X. Chang, Zhiliang Zhao, Zhi Mei, Zhongjun Jia, Xin Jiang, Yong-guan Zhu, James M. Tiedje
Summary: The extensive use of organic chemicals has led to the distribution of hydrocarbon contaminants in many ecosystems worldwide. Bacteria and archaea play a dominant role in transforming these contaminants into methane through a syntrophic process. The resulting methane is then oxidized by anaerobic bacteria and archaea in the presence of electron acceptors, contributing to the reduction of methane emissions and climate change mitigation. However, the specific pathways and syntrophic partners involved in this process are still poorly understood.
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kevin Van Sundert, Sebastian Leuzinger, Martin K. -F. Bader, Scott X. Chang, Martin G. De Kauwe, Jeffrey S. Dukes, J. Adam Langley, Zilong Ma, Bertold Marien, Simon Reynaert, Jingyi Ru, Jian Song, Benjamin Stocker, Cesar Terrer, Joshua Thoresen, Eline Vanuytrecht, Shiqiang Wan, Kai Yue, Sara Vicca
Summary: To reduce uncertainty in climate projections, global change experiments have been conducted to mimic future conditions in ecosystems. Syntheses of results across experiments have provided a more general understanding of ecosystem responses to global change. However, independent syntheses have led to contrasting outcomes, highlighting the need for a publicly available database.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yu Wang, Yuanyuan Huang, Lian Song, Jiahui Yuan, Wei Li, Yongguan Zhu, Scott X. Chang, Yiqi Luo, Philippe Ciais, Josep Penuelas, Julie Wolf, Barbara J. Cade-Menun, Shuijin Hu, Lei Wang, Dengjun Wang, Zengwei Yuan, Yujun Wang, Jishuang Zhang, Ye Tao, Shenqiang Wang, Gang Liu, Xiaoyuan Yan, Chunwu Zhu
Summary: Long-term free air carbon dioxide enrichment experiments on rice plants show that plant-available phosphorus declines in paddy soils as atmospheric CO2 increases. The decline in phosphorus concentration is attributed to the production of soil organic phosphorus that is not readily available to plants, as well as increased loss through crop harvest. These findings suggest that future CO2 scenarios may lead to reduced rice yields, particularly in low-income countries, unless additional phosphorus fertilizers are applied.
Article
Ecology
Oluwabunmi J. Akande, Zilong Ma, Chenyan Huang, Fangliang He, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Based on 1240 observations from 380 studies, the effects of disturbance regimes on forest soil CO2 efflux (FCO2) were quantified across various forest biomes. Climatic perturbations such as elevated CO2 concentration, warming, and increased precipitation were found to increase FCO2 by 13% to 25%. Forest conversion to grassland and elevated carbon input by forest management practices increased FCO2, while decreased carbon input, fire, and acid rain reduced FCO2. Disturbance also affected soil temperature and water content, which influenced the direction and magnitude of the disturbance effects on FCO2. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating disturbance and biome-specific effects into earth system models for better prediction of the feedback between terrestrial carbon cycling and climate change.
Article
Soil Science
Zhengfeng An, Prem Pokharel, Alain F. Plante, Edward W. Bork, Cameron N. Carlyle, Elizabeth K. Williams, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Agroforestry systems in western Canada play important roles in carbon sequestration, but the impact of system type and component land-uses on soil organic carbon (SOC) stability is poorly understood. This study investigated SOC stability in two agroforestry systems (shelterbelt and hedgerow) and their component land-uses (forested area and cropland) using a 61-day laboratory incubation and thermal stability measurements. The results showed that the shelterbelt system had lower biological stability than the hedgerow system, with higher soil respiration and SOC loss during incubation. Thermal stability indicators were influenced by interactive effects of agroforestry system by land-use, and land-use alone. The hedgerow cropland had higher SOC thermal stability than the hedgerow forested area. The findings suggest that planting trees in agricultural land to form agroforestry systems can alter SOC stability, and the hedgerow system may enhance C stability, promote C sequestration, and climate change mitigation.
Article
Plant Sciences
Chenyan Huang, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang, James F. Cahill, Zilong Ma
Summary: This study investigates the effect of tree species mixtures on root systems in natural forests. The results show that species mixtures have a greater fine root length and a positive impact on forest net primary productivity, especially in older stands. These findings suggest that conserving tree species diversity can improve forest productivity and carbon sequestration.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xinli Chen, Anthony R. Taylor, Peter B. Reich, Masumi Hisano, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Increasing tree diversity can enhance soil carbon and nitrogen storage, thus mitigating climate change and sustaining soil fertility.
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Yuye Shen, Yunying Fang, Huai Chen, Zilong Ma, Chengpeng Huang, Xiaofen Wu, Scott X. Chang, Ehsan Tavakkoli, Yanjiang Cai
Summary: Grazing behaviors, including trampling, defoliation, and excretion, have different effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in alpine grassland ecosystems. Light trampling increases SOC stock in the 0-10 cm soil layer, while heavy defoliation increases SOC stock in the 20-30 cm depth. However, excretion significantly decreases SOC stock due to changes in soil bulk density, SOC concentration, and microbial biomass C. Managing livestock grazing behavior is crucial for maintaining SOC stock in alpine grasslands.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Soil Science
Qiumei Teng, Xiaoni Lu, Qianqian Zhang, Linlin Cai, Muhammad Fahad Sardar, Yongfu Li, Touqeer Abbas, Yong Li, Scott X. Chang, Yongchun Li
Summary: Plant invasion can influence soil microbial function and nitrogen supply by changing the quality and quantity of litter input. However, the mechanism by which litter quality regulates soil nitrogen mineralization through microbial function in plant invasion remains unclear.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xinli Chen, Barb R. Thomas, Sarah Pattison, Zhengfeng An, Scott X. Chang
Summary: A two-year field experiment in northern Alberta, Canada, found that the addition of biosolids and urea increased soil CO2 and N2O emissions, while urea alone had a greater effect. Furthermore, the addition of biosolids and urea improved soil quality by increasing organic carbon and microbial biomass.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Correction
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xinli Chen, Anthony R. Taylor, Peter B. Reich, Masumi Hisano, Han Y. H. Chen, Scott X. Chang
Article
Soil Science
Lei Sun, Yong S. Feng, Miles F. Dyck, Dick Puurveen, Guangwei Wu, Scott X. Chang
Summary: Reversing land management from no-tillage to conventional tillage can significantly affect soil greenhouse gas emissions, increase total CO2 fluxes, and have different impacts on area- and yield-scaled GHG fluxes. Nitrogen fertilization did not affect yield-scaled GHG fluxes, but tillage reversal decreased them due to increased crop yield. Periodic tillage can increase yield and reduce yield-scaled GHG emissions.
BIOLOGY AND FERTILITY OF SOILS
(2023)