Effects of nitrogen deposition on carbon and nitrogen contents in soil aggregates in temperate forests of Changbai Mountain, Northeast China.

Abstract

Nitrogen deposition is one of the most important factors affecting carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in terrestrial ecosystem. A six-year N addition experiment was carried out to explore how N deposition affected C and N fractions in soil aggregates in the secondary aspen forest (YHL) and primary Korean pine broad-leaved forest (HSL). We investigagted the effects of N addition on dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON), microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MBC and MBN), particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC and PON) in soil aggregates with different particle sizes. The results showed that the contents of carbon and nitrogen fractions generally increased with the decrease of particle sizes of soil aggregates except for POC and PON. In soil aggregates of HSL, POC and PON significantly decreased by 20.7% and 22.6% in N treatment, respectively, but DOC increased by 11.6%. In YHL, N addition treatment had no signi-ficant effect on C and N fractions in soil aggregates. Total carbon or nitrogen correlated well with the active C and N fractions in soil aggregates, with a great significant negative correlation between POC and DOC in HSL (r=-0.503) and a significant positive correlation between DOC and MBC (r=0.462). In HSL, the negative effect of N treatment on POC and PON and the positive effect on DOC was mainly attributed to the accelerated decomposition of POM by stimulating microbial activity. Soil C and N pools in HSL were more vulnerable to N deposition than that in YHL.