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Long-term nitrogen addition further increased carbon sequestration in a boreal forest

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Abstract

In recent decades, global warming and nitrogen (N) deposition have been increasing obviously, which have led to some strong responses in terrestrial ecosystems, especially the carbon (C) cycle. The boreal forest occupies an important position in the global C cycle with its huge C storage. However, the impact of global change such as N deposition on boreal forest ecosystem C cycle has been not very clear. In order to solve this problem, the field experiment of N addition in a boreal forest has been built in the Greater Khingan Mountains of Northeast China since 2011. Four N addition gradients (0, 25, 50, 75 kg N ha−1 year−1) were set up to study the response of above- and belowground C pool to N addition. The results showed that the total forest C sequestration of low-, medium- and high-N treatments was 104.4 ± 5.9, 20.2 ± 2.7 and 5.3 ± 0.4 g C/g N, respectively. Aboveground trees were the largest C pool, followed by soil, roots and floor C pool. Low-N increased the input of C by promoting photosynthesis. Trees of Larix gmelini increased the investment in the belowground root system and increased the belowground C pool. High-N reduced the inter-annual litter biomass and decreased litter C:N that accelerated the decomposition of litter, resulting in a reduction in the floor C pool. Low-N increased total soil respiration, while medium- and high-N inhibited heterotrophic respiration and then increased soil C sequestration. The estimation of forest C pool provides valuable data for improving the C dynamic characteristics of boreal forest ecosystem and is of great significance for us to understand the impact of climate change on the global C cycle.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Professor Ligong Wang from Daxinganling Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, China, for his advice about field experiment design and suggestions on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China "Global Change and Response" (2016YFA0600800) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41575137, 41773075, 31370494, 31170421).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, 57 Jingxuan West Road, Qufu, 273165, China

    Guancheng Liu, Guoyong Yan, Yajuan Xing & Qinggui Wang

  2. Department of Agricultural Resource and Environment, Heilongjiang University, 74 Xuefu Road, Harbin, 150080, China

    Guancheng Liu, Binbin Huang, Xingyu Sun, Yajuan Xing & Qinggui Wang

  3. International Joint Research Laboratory for Global Change Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Mengyu Chang & Shijie Han

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  1. Guancheng Liu
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  4. Binbin Huang
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Contributions

QW and YX designed the study, got grants from the foundation, supervised data collection and edited the manuscript. QW, GL, YX, GY, MC and SH contributed the whole manuscript preparation and design and wrote the main manuscript text. QW, GL YX, GY, MC, SH and BH prepared all figures. GL, YX, GY, BH, XS and QW prepared field experiments, prepared tables and collected literature. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yajuan Xing or Qinggui Wang.

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Communicated by Agustín Merino.

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Liu, G., Yan, G., Chang, M. et al. Long-term nitrogen addition further increased carbon sequestration in a boreal forest. Eur J Forest Res 140, 1113–1126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-021-01386-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-021-01386-9

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