Soil biotic and abiotic traits as driven factors for site quality of Araucaria angustifolia plantations

Tancredo Souza,Mário Dobner,Djalma E Schmitt,Lucas Jónatan Rodrigues Da Silva,Ketlin Schneider

doi:10.1007/s11756-021-00988-3

Tancredo Souza, Mário Dobner + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00988-3

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Abstract

The role of soil biotic and abiotic factors in crucial soil functions such as primary production, organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling, and soil biota community structure in the Araucaria ecosystem remains poorly quantified. We aimed to understand how the development of organic horizons, root growth, soil chemical properties, and the entire soil biota community affected the soil quality in even aged and monospecific Araucaria angustifolia plantations. We collected soil monoliths to describe layers of organic matter and the complex soil food web into these layers. We determined soil pH, soil moisture, total nitrogen, available P, and total organic carbon into each layer (litter, F-layer, H-layer, and A horizon), the biomass of fine roots, the community structure of soil biota, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and nematodes, as well as the microbial biomass carbon. In the high-quality site, there was significantly higher organic matter formation, nutrient cycling (N and P), root growth, soil moisture, soil biota diversity, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and nematodes evaluated by the microbial biomass carbon compared to the low-quality site. High-quality sites promote the development of organic horizons, root growth on superficial layers that provide plant nutrient release, the A horizon nutrient contents, and the entire soil biota community in monospecific Araucaria angustifolia plantations located on humid subtropical Cambisols. This creates a positive plant-soil feedback that maintains soil quality and increases primary production, nutrient cycling, and habitat and food for the soil food web.

Highlights

It is well documented that biotic and abiotic factors significantly influence above- and belowground ecosystem primary production through positive plant-soil feedback (Bennett and Klironomos 2018)
High-quality sites promote the development of organic horizons, root growth on superficial layers that provide plant nutrient release, the A horizon nutrient contents, and the entire soil biota community in monospecific Araucaria angustifolia plantations located on humid subtropical Cambisols
It is important to note that the site quality classification proposed by Schneider et al (1992) and employed for the classification of the 530 ha of plantations regarded for stand selection, shows that the productivity level of A. angustifolia can be even lower than the low-quality stand evaluated in the present study (14 m3 ha− 1 yr− 1)

Summary

Introduction

It is well documented that biotic and abiotic factors significantly influence above- and belowground ecosystem primary production through positive plant-soil feedback (Bennett and Klironomos 2018). The role of soil biotic and abiotic factors remain far from being understood, primarily because of a wide range of complex compartments into soil ecosystems and a lack of scientific studies gathered from long-term field experiments (Bowsher et al 2018; Santos et al 2018; Souza et al 2019). Ecosystem services, such as primary production, organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling, and soil biota activity are among the most important services that promote soil quality and generate positive soil-plant feedback (Tateno et al 2017). The abundance and diversity of soil organisms may, in turn, be regulated by primary production, further modulating plant-soil feedback (Tateno et al 2017; Bennett and Klironomos 2018)

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