Effects of experimental warming on soil enzyme activities in an alpine swamp meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Information about the response of soil enzymes to field warming in permafrost regions is scarce, and the potential mechanisms by which warming combined with biotic and abiotic factors affect soil enzyme activities in alpine grasslands remain unclear. A 3-year in situ experiment with two warming levels (2.7 °C and 5.3 °C) was conducted in an alpine swamp meadow to investigate the effects of experimental warming on 5 soil enzyme activities involved in soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, and the relationships between soil enzyme activities and soil variables related to physicochemical properties and nutrient levels were examined. Results showed that warming had obvious positive effects on soil moisture (SM), soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and NH4+-N contents, especially in the surface soil layer. Soil NO3--N tended to decrease under moderate warming, while it significantly increased under high warming. Meanwhile, during the entire growing season, warming strongly enhanced invertase and amylase activities by 39.2–49.0% and 109.9–191.0%, respectively. In contrast, urease activities were significantly decreased by 36.8–55.7% in warming plots and there were no significant differences in catalase or cellulase activities among treatments during the whole growing season, while catalase activities in warming plots were significantly decreased by 2.6–4.0% in June. These inconsistent responses of soil enzyme activities to experimental warming could be partially explained by warming-induced changes in soil variables. Redundancy analysis showed that soil NO3--N and SM were the most important factors, which explained 29.8% and 19.7% of the variations in soil enzyme activities, respectively, suggesting that the warming-induced increase in SM could weaken the soil aeration status and enhance enzyme and substrate diffusion, strongly affecting soil nitrification and microbial enzyme production.