Development of Nutrient Uptake by Understory Plant Arrhenatherum elatius and Microbial Biomass during Primary Succession of Forest Soils in Post-Mining Land

Satoshi Kaneda,Šárka Angst,Jan Frouz

doi:10.3390/f11020247

Abstract

The development of plant and soil microbial communities is one of the basic preconditions for the restoration of functional ecosystems. However, nutrients are concurrently used by plants and microbes, and the dynamics of this interaction during ecosystem development have seldom been studied. The aim of our study, thus, was to describe the dynamics of nutrient availability in soil and, at the same time, the nutrient accumulation in plant and microbial biomass along an unassisted primary succession heading toward broadleaf forest. The growth of the understory plant Arrhenatherum elatius on soils originating from three (16, 22, and 45 years’ old) successional stages of a post-mining area and the development of the microbial community in the presence or absence of this plant were studied in a pot experiment. Both, the plant biomass and carbon (C) in microbial biomass in intermediate and late middle successional stages were higher than those in the early stage. In soil, extractable organic C, extractable organic nitrogen (N), and inorganic N increased with proceeding succession, but Olsen phosphorus (P) peaked in the intermediate successional stage. The amounts of N and P in plant and microbial biomass increased during succession. In the late middle successional stage, the amount of P in microbial biomass exceeded that of plant bound P approximately twice, and this increase was higher in pots with plants than without. The results imply that the competition between plants and microbes for available P may increase microbial P uptake and, thus, hinder plant growth in later successional stages.

Highlights

Afforestation is a common way of restoring post-mining land [1]
The aboveground as well as belowground plant biomass in intermediate and late middle successional stages were significantly higher than in the early successional stage, but there was no significant difference between those two stages (Figure 1)
While microbial biomass C increased already in the intermediate successional stage (Figure 2b), microbial biomass N did not increase until the late middle successional stage (Figure 2c)

Summary

Introduction

Primary succession is a sensible approach to restore a functional forest ecosystem [2,3], in which primary production is predominantly limited by nutrient availability [4]. The most common limiting nutrients in terrestrial ecosystems are nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) [6]. Olsen phosphorus (P) becomes more limited later as succession proceeds because of its gradual depletion from soil minerals. The availability of these nutrients in soil is largely driven by microorganisms, which take a key role in Forests 2020, 11, 247; doi:10.3390/f11020247 www.mdpi.com/journal/forests

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion