Effects of different regeneration patterns on soil dissolved organic matter degradation in Castanopsis carlesii forests of subtropical China

Abstract

Biodegradability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) affects stabilization and mineralization of soil organic matter, which is of great significance to soil nutrient cycling. In order to explore the effects of forest regeneration on soil DOM degradation, soil DOM solution was sampled in a natural Castanopsis carlesii forest (NF), a secondary forest of C. carlesii (SF), and an artificial-assisted regeneration forest of C. carlesii (AR) in a sub-tropical area and conducted 42-day laboratory incubation. The results showed that: 1) both the degradation rate of soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the ratio of labile DOC were as follows: SF>AR>NF; dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) are the factors significantly affecting the ratio of labile DOC; 2) stable DOC accounted for the majority of soil DOC in all the three forest types (72.3%-94.6%), which had long turnover time and contributed to the formation of stable soil organic matter (SOC); 3) the initial humification index in emission mode (HIXem) of soil DOM would affect the turnover time of labile DOC. The spectral structure of DOM changed dynamically during the degradation process, indicating that microorganism would turn to degrade aromatic and hydrophobic fractions for carbon source after the depletion of labile DOM. Overall, the transformation from NF of C. carlesii into SF and AR could increase the proportion of the easily degradable DOC, and enhance the biodegradability of soil DOM, which were not conducive to the accumulation of SOC.