Effects of understory removal and tree girdling on soil microbial community composition and litter decomposition in two Eucalyptus plantations in South China

1. Soil micro-organisms play important roles in ecosystems and respond quickly to environmental changes. We examined how understory removal and tree girdling influence the composition of soil microbial community and the litter decomposition in two subtropical plantations. 2. Phospholipid fatty acids...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:	Functional ecology Jg. 25; H. 4; S. 921 - 931
Hauptverfasser:	Wu, Jianping, Liu, Zhanfeng, Wang, Xiaoling, Sun, Yuxin, Zhou, Lixia, Lin, Yongbiao, Fu, Shenglei
Format:	Journal Article
Sprache:	Englisch
Veröffentlicht:	Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing 01.08.2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Wiley-Blackwell Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Schlagworte:	Abundance Acid soils Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Autoecology Biological and medical sciences China Communities Community ecology community structure Decomposition Ecosystems environmental factors Eucalyptus fatty acids forest ecosystems forest management forest restoration Forest soils Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology fungi General aspects girdling Herbivores Microbial ecology Nitrogen phospholipid fatty acids phospholipids Plantations principal response curves redundancy analysis Soil composition Soil ecology Soil fungi Soil microorganisms soil temperature Understory Various environments (extraatmospheric space, air, water) Asia China Community structure Composition redundancy analysis Litter Redundancy principal response curves Phospholipid Lipids Forest management girdling Decomposition Woody plant Fatty acids Eucalyptus Soil fauna phospholipid fatty acids Understory Dicotyledones Angiospermae Myrtaceae Tree Spermatophyta Microbial community
ISSN:	0269-8463, 1365-2435
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
Tags:	Tag hinzufügen Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!

Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:	1. Soil micro-organisms play important roles in ecosystems and respond quickly to environmental changes. We examined how understory removal and tree girdling influence the composition of soil microbial community and the litter decomposition in two subtropical plantations. 2. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis was used to characterize soil microbial community. Redundancy analysis and principal response curves (PRC) were used to investigate the relationships between soil microbial community and environmental factors. 3. Understory removal significantly reduced the amount of fungal PLFAs, the ratio of fungal to bacterial PLFAs, and the litter decomposition but did not affect bacterial PLFAs and total PLFAs. In contrast, tree girdling did not affect the soil microbial characteristics. The changes in soil microbial community caused by understory removal were mainly attributed to the indirect effects such as increased soil temperature and soil NO₃¯-N availability. In addition, PRC analysis showed that the relative abundance of most PLFAs increased in response to understory removal in the 2-year-old plantation but decreased in the 24-year-old plantation. 4. We propose that understory plants are important components in subtropical forest ecosystems, and play different roles in maintaining soil microbial community and driving litter decomposition processes in young vs. old plantations. The functions of understory plants should be considered in forest management and restoration. The negligible effect of tree girdling on the soil micro-organisms can be attributed to the resprouting trait and mycorrhizal interactions of Eucalyptus.
Bibliographie:	The authors contributed equally to this work. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:	0269-8463 1365-2435
DOI:	10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01845.x