Vegetation and soil responses to added carbon and nutrients remain six years after discontinuation of long-term treatments

Abstract

Global warming and increased nutrient availability in the Arctic have attracted wide attention. However, it is unknown how an increased supply of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and/or labile carbon (C) – alone and in combinations – affects the concentrations and pools of C and nutrients in plants, soil and soil microorganisms, and whether the cessation of these additions allows the ecosystem to recover from amendments. Six treatments (control, C, N, P, NP and C + NP) were applied at a subarctic heath for 8–10 years. After being untreated for two years, amendments were re-applied to one half of the plots for four years while the other plot half received no amendments. When the plots were harvested, we could therefore compare responses in plots with nearly continuous 14–16-year amendments to those with six years with discontinued treatments. The responses to individual and combined nutrient additions were mostly similar in re-initiated and discontinued plots. Individual N addition strongly increased the C and N pools in the graminoids, thereby also increasing the C and N pools in litter and fine roots compared to the plots without added N. This contributed to the increased microbial biomass C and total C in soil. P addition alone increased C and N pools in vascular cryptogams, as well as PO43−, NH4+, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved organic nitrogen concentrations in soil compared to the plots without added P. Hence, plant functional groups showed differential responses to long-term N and P amendment, and after the initial nutrient additions for 8–10 years, the investigated subarctic tundra ecosystem had reached a new steady state that was resilient to further changes still six years after cessation of additions.