Extracellular Enzyme Stoichiometry and Microbial Metabolism Limitation During Vegetation Restoration Process in the Middle of the Qinling Mountains, China

Abstract

Clarifying the characteristics of soil microbial nutrient limitation and its driving mechanisms during vegetation restoration after farmland abandonment has important implications for revealing soil nutrient cycling and maintaining ecosystem stability. To determine the limitation of soil microbial nutrients and its relationship with soil properties along a chronosequence of abandoned farmland in the middle of the Qinling Mountains, the soil physicochemical properties and five enzyme activities (β-1,4-glucosidase (BG), cellobiohydrolase (CBH), β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), and acid phosphatase (AP)) were measured, and models of extracellular enzymatic activity were applied. The results showed that the activities of BG, CBH, NAG, LAP, and AP were significantly increased following farmland abandonment. With the increasing years of abandonment, the ratios of (BG+CBH)/(NAG+LAP) and (BG+CBH)/AP significantly decreased, whereas the ratio of (NAG+LAP)/AP increased. Correlation analysis showed that most soil physicochemical properties were significantly correlated with extracellular enzyme activities and extracellular enzymatic stoichiometry. The vector length of extracellular enzymatic stoichiometry decreased with the increase in abandonment years, indicating that the limitation of soil microorganisms on carbon (C) was reduced. Moreover, the vector angles (>45°) showed a decreasing trend, indicating that microbial metabolisms were limited by phosphorus (P) and gradually decreased. Regression analysis showed that the C and P limitations were significantly related to total nutrients, available nutrients, nutrient ratio, and soil physical properties. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) revealed that the C and P limitations were directly regulated by nutrient ratio. PLS-PM further showed that soil total nutrients indirectly affected soil microbial C and P limitations by affecting nutrient ratio, and nutrient ratio affected the soil metabolism limitation via available nutrients and pH. Our study suggests that the characteristics of microbial metabolism during the vegetation restoration process reflect the mechanism of microorganism-mediated soil nutrient cycling, which provides a theoretical basis for revealing the community dynamics and stability during the vegetation restoration process and maintaining the regional ecological environment security in the Qinling Mountains.