The response of soil enzyme activity to seasonal and microtopographical variations in the sedge peatlands in Changbai Mountain, China

Ming Wang

doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22531

Ming Wang

https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22531

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Publication Date: Mar 23, 2020

Affiliation: Northeast Normal University

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&lt;p&gt;Hummock-hollow microtopography is a common feature in northern peatlands. It&lt;br&gt;creates microsites of variable hydrology, vegetation, and soil biogeochemistry, thus affect soil C&lt;br&gt;cycling in peatlands at the local scale. This study investigated effects of microtopography on soil&lt;br&gt;enzyme (&amp;#946;-1,4-glucosidase (&amp;#946;G), &amp;#946;-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), acid phosphatase (AP)&lt;br&gt;and peroxidase (PER)) activities and environment variables as well as their relationships in a&lt;br&gt;typical sedge peatland in Changbai Mountain, northeast of China. Our results showed that the&lt;br&gt;enzyme activities in the sedge peatland significantly varied across seasons and microtopographical&lt;br&gt;positions. Soil enzyme activities in hummocks exhibited more obvious seasonal variation than&lt;br&gt;hollows, with the &amp;#946;G, AP and PER activities presented a distinct valley in summer and the&lt;br&gt;maximum values occurred in Spring or Autumn. Soil hydrolase (&amp;#946;G, NAG and AP) activities in&lt;br&gt;hummocks were significantly higher compared to hollows, while soil oxidase (PER enzyme)&lt;br&gt;activity in hollows was higher than hummocks. The NMDS analysis revealed that the influence&lt;br&gt;degree of microtopography on the enzyme activities was higher than that of seasonal variation.&lt;br&gt;Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that the variations of soil enzyme activities in the peatland&lt;br&gt;were related to environmental variables, especially to water table depth (WTD), soil temperature&lt;br&gt;(ST), SOC, N availability and P availability. Furthermore, correlation analysis showed that the&lt;br&gt;three hydrolase (BG, NAG and AP) activities were positively correlated with soil TN, SOC and&lt;br&gt;C/N, and negatively correlated with WTD and TP. On the contrast, the PER activities were&lt;br&gt;positively correlated with TP, and negatively correlated with ST, SOC and C/N. The present&lt;br&gt;study demonstrated that small scale topographic heterogeneity created by hummock cause habitat&lt;br&gt;heterogeneity and thus lead to significant difference of soil enzyme activity between hummock&lt;br&gt;and hollow in the sedge peatlands. This finding provides further evidence of the importance of&lt;br&gt;peatland microtopography to C cycling and has direct implications for scaling biogeochemical&lt;br&gt;processes to the ecosystem level.&lt;/p&gt;

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