Climate extremes are likely to become more common in the future and are expected to change ecosystem processes and functions. As important consumers of seeds in forests, rodents are likely to affect forest regeneration following an extreme weather event. In April 2015, we began a field experiment after an extreme snowfall event in January 2015 in a primary forest that was > 300 years old. The heavy snow broke many tree limbs, which presumably reduced the numbers of seeds produced. Two treatments (rodent exclusion and rodent access) were established in the forest, in which rodent exclusion were achieved by placing stainlessness nets around the plot borders. Plant abundance, plant species richness, soil properties, soil microbial community composition, basal and substrate-induced respiration were determined in December 2017. Plant abundance and species richness significantly increased, but soil microbial biomass decreased with rodent exclusion. Urease activity and soil basal respiration also significantly decreased with rodent exclusion. Most other soil properties, however, were unaffected by rodent exclusion. The relative effects of multiple predictors of basal respiration were mainly explained by the composition of the soil microbial community. After a heavy snowfall in an old-growth forest, exclusion of rodents increased plant regeneration and reduced microbial biomass and soil basal respiration. The main factor associated with the reduction in soil basal respiration was the change in the composition of the soil microbial community. These findings suggest that after a heavy snowfall, rodents may interfere with forest regeneration by directly reducing plant diversity and abundance but may enhance carbon retention by indirectly altering the soil microbial community.

中文翻译：

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大雪后植物与啮齿动物的相互作用降低了老龄林中植物的再生和土壤碳排放

极端气候在未来可能会变得越来越普遍，并有望改变生态系统的过程和功能。作为森林种子的重要消费国，啮齿动物很可能在极端天气事件后影响森林的更新。2015年4月，我们在2015年1月发生了一场极端降雪事件之后，在一个拥有300多年历史的原始森林中开始了现场试验。大雪打断了许多树枝，大概减少了种子的产生。在森林中建立了两种处理方法（啮齿动物排除和啮齿动物进入），其中通过在样地边界周围放置不锈钢网来实现啮齿动物的排除。2017年12月确定了植物丰度，植物物种丰富度，土壤特性，土壤微生物群落组成，基础和底物诱导的呼吸。随着啮齿动物的排斥，植物的丰度和物种丰富度显着增加，但土壤微生物量却减少了。啮齿动物排除后，脲酶活性和土壤基础呼吸也显着降低。然而，大多数其他土壤特性不受啮齿动物排斥的影响。基础呼吸的多种预测因子的相对影响主要由土壤微生物群落的组成来解释。在旧林中大雪之后，啮齿类动物的排除增加了植物的再生并减少了微生物的生物量和土壤的基础呼吸。与土壤基础呼吸减少有关的主要因素是土壤微生物群落组成的变化。这些发现表明，大雪过后，