Impacts of hydrological conditions on enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations in peatland soil: An experimental simulation

Abstract

Impacts of hydrological conditions on peatland soil enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations were investigated using peat cores from two typical peatlands, the forest swamp and the marsh in North-east China, under water level manipulation in the laboratory. The results indicated varied impacts of dry and waterlogged conditions on soil enzyme activities, depending on the confounding factors including the peatland types and the variation frequency of hydrological conditions. Carbon-related enzyme activities, phenol oxidase and β-glucosidase, were much higher in the marsh than in the forest swamp. On the contrary, phenolic concentration was measured to be much higher in the latter. Soil enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations were found to vary between the two peatlands, much more remarkably than within the individual peatlands caused by the changes in the water level. The negative relationship or inconspicuous correlation between phenolics and phenol oxidase was found to vary with specific soil conditions. These results implied that the enzyme activities and phenolic concentrations might be related to the developmental stages or the types of wetlands more than to hydrological conditions.