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Carbon storage and plant-soil linkages among soil aggregates as affected by nitrogen enrichment and mowing management in a meadow grassland

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Abstract

Aims

Soil aggregates constitute spatially-separated microbial habitats and architectural units for biogeochemical reactions. However, little is known about how aggregates varying in size can affect soil carbon (C) storage and mediate the direction of plant-soil interactions.

Methods

In a meadow steppe, we assessed soil aggregate C storage affected by nitrogen (N) addition and mowing and to what degree plant-soil interactions differed among soil aggregate-size classes.

Results

Nitrogen addition increased plant biomass, soil C concentration in macroaggregates and relative abundance of bacteria, but decreased fungal relative abundance and the activity of oxidative enzymes. However, mowing counteracted N effects on plant productivity and enzyme activity. In macroaggregates, close linkages with plant biomass and species richness were found for soil available nutrients and ratio of fungi to bacteria (F:B ratio). In contrast, strong physical protection and restricted fungal dominance and activity contributed to C stabilization in microaggregates, where plant community and soil properties were less linked with each other.

Conclusions

Our study clearly demonstrated that stronger plant-soil linkages occurred in macro- vs. microaggregates. This linkage was associated with a rise in plant biomass and soil C accumulation but a drop in F:B ratio in macroaggregates under N addition.

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Data availability

Data sets can be obtained from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770525 and 31870441) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23080400). Ruzhen Wang was grateful for the support from the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (Y9QCH121YY). JS and JP research was supported by the European Research Council Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG 610028-IMBALANCE-P, the Spanish Government grant CGL2016-79835-P and the Catalan Government grant SGR 2017-1005. We are grateful to the three anonymous referees for their helpful and constructive comments on an early version of this manuscript.

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  1. Ruzhen Wang and Hui Wu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Erguna Forest-Steppe Ecotone Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Ruzhen Wang, Hui Wu, Tianpeng Li, Heyong Liu & Yong Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hui Wu

  3. CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain

    Jordi Sardans & Josep Peñuelas

  4. CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Jordi Sardans & Josep Peñuelas

  5. Sydney Institute of Agriculture, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, 380 Werombi Rd, Camden, NSW, 2570, Australia

    Feike A. Dijkstra

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  1. Ruzhen Wang
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Wang, R., Wu, H., Sardans, J. et al. Carbon storage and plant-soil linkages among soil aggregates as affected by nitrogen enrichment and mowing management in a meadow grassland. Plant Soil 457, 407–420 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04749-0

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