Positive effects of plant diversity on soil microbial biomass and activity are associated with more root biomass production

Although the advantages of multi-species plantations over single-species plantations have been widely recognized, the mechanisms driving these advantages remain unclear. In this study, we compared stand biomass, litter production and quality, soil properties, soil microbial community, and functions in a Pinus massoniana Lamb. and Castanopsis hystrix Miq. mixed plantation and their corresponding mono-specific plantations after 34 years afforestation in subtropical China. The results have shown that a coniferous-broadleaf mixture created significantly positive effects on stand biomass, litter production, soil microbial biomass, and activities. Firstly, the tree, shrub and herb biomass, and litter production were significantly higher in the coniferous-broadleaf mixed plantation. Secondly, although the concentrations of soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) were lower in the mixed stand, the concentrations of soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), and nitrogen (MBN), along with MBC-to-SOC and MBN-to-TN ratio, were significantly higher in mixed stands with markedly positive admixing effects. We also found higher carbon source utilization ability and β−1, 4−N−acetylglucosaminidase, urease and acid phosphatase activities in mixed stands compared with the mono-species stands. Our results highlight that establishment of coniferous-broadleaf mixed forests may be a good management practice as coniferous-broadleaf mixture could accumulate higher stand biomass and return more litter, resulting in increasing soil microbial biomass and related functions for the long term in subtropical China.

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Soil microbial biomass in relation to fine root in Kiteni hill Sal forest of Ilam, eastern Nepal

Nepalese Journal of Biosciences ◽

10.3126/njbs.v2i0.7493 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 80-87

Author(s):

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai ◽

Tej Narayan Mandal

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Organic Carbon ◽

Total Nitrogen ◽

Root Biomass ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Fine Root ◽

Sandy Loam ◽

Fine Root Biomass ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Sal Forest

Soil microbial biomass in relation to fine root was studied in Kiteni hill Sal (Shorea robusta) forest of Ilam during summer season. The forest had sandy loam type of soil texture. Organic carbon was higher in 0-15 cm depth (2.09%) than in 15-30 cm depth (1.53%). Total nitrogen of 0- 15 cm depth was 0.173% and in 15-30 cm depth was 0.124%. Soil microbial biomass of carbon of Kiteni hill sal forest was (445.14 ?g g-1) and microbial biomass of nitrogen was (49.07 ?g g-1). Fine root biomass of this forest was 2.34 t ha-1 (<2 mm diameter) and 0.93 t ha-1 (2-5 mm diameter) in 0-15 cm depth and 0.73 t ha-1 (<2 mm diameter) and 0.46 t ha-1 (2-5 mm diameter) in 15-30 cm depth. Organic carbon, total nitrogen, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen of upper layer soil were negatively correlated with fine root biomass of forest. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njbs.v2i0.7493 Nepalese Journal of Biosciences 2 : 80-87 (2012)

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Plant mixture balances terrestrial ecosystem C:N:P stoichiometry

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-24889-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xinli Chen ◽

Han Y. H. Chen

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽

Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽

C:N:P Stoichiometry ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Species Mixture ◽

Background Soil

AbstractPlant and soil C:N:P ratios are of critical importance to productivity, food-web dynamics, and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Plant diversity continues to decline globally; however, its influence on terrestrial C:N:P ratios remains uncertain. By conducting a global meta-analysis of 2049 paired observations in plant species mixtures and monocultures from 169 sites, we show that, on average across all observations, the C:N:P ratios of plants, soils, soil microbial biomass and enzymes did not respond to species mixture nor to the species richness in mixtures. However, the mixture effect on soil microbial biomass C:N changed from positive to negative, and those on soil enzyme C:N and C:P shifted from negative to positive with increasing functional diversity in mixtures. Importantly, species mixture increased the C:N, C:P, N:P ratios of plants and soils when background soil C:N, C:P, and N:P were low, but decreased them when the respective background ratios were high. Our results demonstrate that plant mixtures can balance terrestrial plant and soil C:N:P ratios dependent on background soil C:N:P. Our findings highlight that plant diversity conservation does not only increase plant productivity, but also optimizes ecosystem stoichiometry for the diversity and productivity of today’s and future vegetation.

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Transgressive overyielding of soil microbial biomass in a grassland plant diversity gradient

Soil Biology and Biochemistry ◽

10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.01.015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

pp. 122-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Yasemin Guenay ◽

Anne Ebeling ◽

Katja Steinauer ◽

Wolfgang W. Weisser ◽

Nico Eisenhauer

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Diversity Gradient

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Testing relationship between plant productivity and diversity in a desertified steppe in Northwest China

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.7239 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. e7239

Author(s):

Yang Yang ◽

Bingru Liu

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Plant Productivity ◽

Northwestern China ◽

Soil Factors ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Ground Biomass ◽

The Relationship ◽

Desertified Steppe

The rapid global plant diversity and productivity loss has resulted in ecosystem functional degeneration in recent decades, and the relationship between plant diversity and productivity is a pressing issue around the world. Here, we sampled six plant communities that have not been grazed for 20 years, i.e., Agropyron mongolicum, Stipa bungeana, Cynanchum komarovii, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Sophora alopecuroides, Artemisia ordosica, located in a desertified steppe, northwestern China, and tested the relationship between plant diversity and productivity in this region. We found a positive linear relationship between AGB (above-ground biomass) and BGB (below-ground biomass), and the curves between plant diversity and AGB were unimodal (R2 = 0.4572, p < 0.05), indicating that plant productivity increased at a low level of diversity but decreased at a high level of diversity. However, there was no significant relationship between BGB and plant diversity (p > 0.05). Further, RDA (redundancy analysis) indicated that soil factors had a strong effect on plant diversity and productivity. Totally, GAMs (generalized additive models) showed that soil factors (especially total nitrogen TN, total carbon TC, soil microbial biomass nitrogen SMB-N, soil microbial biomass carbon SMB-C) explained more variation in plant diversity and productivity (78.24%), which can be regarded as the key factors driving plant diversity and productivity. Therefore, strategies aiming to increase plant productivity and protect plant diversity may concentrate on promoting soil factors (e.g., increasing TC, TN, SMB-N and SMB-C) and plant species, which can be regarded as an effective and simple strategy to stabilize ecosystems to mitigate aridity in desertified steppes in northwestern China.

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Influence of PSB Biofertilizer on Biomass Production in Maize and Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ◽

10.20546/ijcmas.2017.611.241 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (11) ◽

pp. 2023-2029

Author(s):

S. Vinod Babu ◽

S. Triveni ◽

R. Subhash Reddy ◽

J. Sathyanarayana

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Biomass Production ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽

Biomass Carbon ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon

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Plant diversity drives soil microbial biomass carbon in grasslands irrespective of global environmental change factors

Global Change Biology ◽

10.1111/gcb.13011 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (11) ◽

pp. 4076-4085 ◽

Cited By ~ 78

Author(s):

Madhav Prakash Thakur ◽

Alexandru Milcu ◽

Pete Manning ◽

Pascal A. Niklaus ◽

Christiane Roscher ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽

Global Environmental Change ◽

Biomass Carbon ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Change Factors ◽

Global Environmental

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Manure Applications Combined With Chemical Fertilizer Improves Soil Functionality, Microbial Biomass and Rice Production in a Paddy Field

10.21203/rs.3.rs-461485/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anas Iqbal ◽

Liang He ◽

Steven G McBride ◽

Izhar Ali ◽

Kashif Akhtar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Biomass ◽

Grain Yield ◽

Biomass Production ◽

Enzyme Activities ◽

Soil Microbial Biomass ◽

Enzymatic Activities ◽

Chemical Fertilizer ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Soil Enzymatic Activities ◽

Soil Functionality

Abstract Synthetic fertilizer with organic fertilizer (OF) is an approach for the improvement of soil health and quality without compromising crop yield. Therefore, a two-year field experiment was conducted to explore optimal chemical fertilizer (CF) management strategies in the context of OF, such as cattle manure (CM) and poultry manure (PM) fertilization to Ultisol soil to improve soil microbial biomass production, enzyme activities and nutrient contents, as well as grain yield of rice. A total of six treatments in the following combinations were used: i.e., T1— CF0; T2—100% CF; T3—60% CM + 40% CF; T4—30% CM + 70%CF; T5—60% PM + 40% CF, and T6—30% PM + 70% CF. Results showed that the combined fertilization significantly increased soil enzymatic activities such as soil invertase, acid phosphatase, urease, catalase, ꞵ-glucosidase, and cellulase as compared to sole CF application. Similarly, the integrated manure and inorganic fertilizers led to significant increases in soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorous (AP) and grain yield of rice. Average increases in soil MBC, MBN, SOC AN, and AP in the 0–20 cm soil depth were 62.2%, 54.5%, 29.2%, 17.4%, and 19.8%, respectively, across the years in treatment T3 compared with T2. Interestingly, the linear regression analysis displayed that soil enzymatic activities were highly positively correlated with MBC and MBN. Furthermore, the PCA exhibited that the improved soil enzyme activities and microbial biomass production played a key role in the higher grain yield of rice. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that the combined use of CF and OF in paddy soil could be beneficial for the farmers in southern China by improving soil functionality and yield of rice on a sustainable basis.

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