Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (4): 615-621.doi: 10.11934/j.issn.1673-4831.2016.04.016

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Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon and Nitrogen in Three Types of Urban Forest Soils in Shanghai

WANG Juan-juan1, ZHU Sha1, JIN Shi-ke1, ZHANG Qi1, YOU Wen-hui1,2   

  1. 1. School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China;
    2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, Shanghai 200241, China
  • Received:2015-10-06 Online:2016-07-25 Published:2016-07-26

Abstract:

Being the most active part of soil organic matter, microbial biomass can be used to characterize soil fertility, and plays an important role in maintaining balance of the soil ecosystem. The dafumigation-extraction method (FE) was used to determine soil microbial biomass carbon content (Cmic) and nitrogen content (Nmic) in three types of urban forest soils in Shanghai for analysis of their spatio-temporal and seasonal variations. Results show that the soils varied sharply in Cmic and Nmic with the type of forest. Cmic in the soil of the Cinnamomum camphora forest, Metasequoia glyptostroboides forest and C. camphora-dominated mixed forest varied in the range of 46.57-908.77, 64.58-480.54 and 57.38-853.18 mg·kg-1, respectively, while Nmic in the range of 10.61-103.64, 20.14-88.39 and 16.67-148.00 mg·kg-1, respectively. Both Cmic and Nmic declined with soil depth in all the soil profiles. However, soil microbial biomass did not vary much seasonally in the >15-20 cm soil layer, but quite significantly in the 0-5, >5-10 and >10-15 cm soil layers, in all the types of forest soil, and often peaked in autumn. Correlation analysis indicates that the content of soil microbial biomass was significantly and positively related to the content of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen(P<0.01), but negatively to soil bulk density(P<0.01). Moreover, Nmic was greatly influenced by soil water content and soil temperature. As a result of the joint effect of vegetation and environmental factors, the three types of forest soils differed in content of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen and hence the spatio-temporal distribution of soil microbial biomass.

Key words: urban forest, soil microbe, seasonal dynamics, spatial pattern

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