Nordström Högberg, Mona
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
In terrestrial ecosystems, gross nitrogen mineralisation is positively correlated to microbial biomass but negatively to soil organic matter C-to-N ratios; the influence of the microbial community structure is less well known. Here, we relate rates of gross N mineralisation to fungi-to-bacteria ratios in three natural forest types of contrasting N availability and in a long-term N- loading experiment in a boreal forest. We report, for the first time, a strong negative correlation between gross N mineralisation and the fungi-to-bacteria ratio ( R-adj(2)= 0.91, P= 0.0005, N= 7). There was also a negative correlation between gross N mineralisation and the C-to-N ratio ( R-adj(2)= 0.89, P= 0.001, N= 7), but a weaker positive correlation between gross N mineralisation and soil pH ( R-adj(2)= 0.64, P= 0.019, N= 7). Our analysis suggests that soil fungi-to-bacteria and C-to-N ratios are interrelated and that they exert strong influences on soil N cycling in boreal forests.
Keywords
boreal forest; C-to-N ratio; fungi-to-bacteria ratio; gross nitrogen mineralisation; pH
Published in
Biology and Fertility of Soils
2007, volume: 44, number: 2, pages: 363-366
Publisher: SPRINGER
SLU Authors
Högberg, Peter
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-007-0215-9
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/15554