Comparsion of Soil Microbiology Characteristics in Five Subtropical Ecosystems

Abstract:

In order to understand the soil microbiology characters of subtropical ecosystem, the soil microbial physio-chemical properties were studied in five ecosystems, such as barren grassland (BG), Cunninghamia lanceolata forest (CL), Cinnamomum camphora forest (CC), Cunninghamia lanceolata-Cinnamomum camphora mixed forest (CL-CC) and nature recovery (NR). The results showed that soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus (SMBC, SMBN and SMBP) and soil basal respiration (SBR) in CC, CL-CC and NR were significantly higher than those in BG and CL (P<0.05) at 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm soil layers, whereas metabolic quotient (qCO₂) in CC, CL-CC and NR was significantly lower than that in BG and CL (P<0.05). SMBC, SMBN, SMBP and SBR significantly decreased with increment of soil depth (P<0.05), while qCO₂ significantly increased in all ecosystems (P<0.05). Soil bulk density (SBD) had significantly negative correlation with SMBC, SMBN, SMBP, and SBR (P<0.05), significantly positive correlation with qCO₂ (P<0.05). SMBC, SMBN, SMBP, SBR had significantly positive correlation with soil total porosity (STP), soil water stable macro-aggregate (SWSM), soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), and available phosphorus (AP) (P<0.01), and qCO₂ had significant negative correlation with STP, SWSM, SOC, TN, AN, AP (P<0.05). Therefore, NR, CC and CL-CC could significantly improve soil quality, but BG and CL had not obvious amelioration to soil quality.