Host plant height explains the effect of nitrogen enrichment on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities.

Nitrogen (N) enrichment is widely known to affect the root-associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) community in different ways, for example, via altering soil properties and/or shifting host plant functional structure. However, empirical knowledge of their relative importance is still lacking. Using a long-term N addition experiment, we measured the AMF community taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity at the single plant species (roots of 15 plant species) and plant community (mixed roots) levels. We also measured four functional traits of 35 common plant species along the N addition gradient. We found divergent responses of AMF diversity to N addition for host plants with different innate heights (i.e. plant natural height under unfertilized treatment). Furthermore, our data showed that species-specific responses of AMF diversity to N addition were negatively related to the change in maximum plant height. When scaling up to the community level, N addition affected AMF diversity mainly through increasing the maximum plant height, rather than altering soil properties. Our results highlight the importance of plant height in driving AMF community dynamics under N enrichment at both species and community levels, thus providing important implications for understanding the response of AMF diversity to anthropogenic N deposition.

Northward range expansion of rooting ungulates decreases detritivore and predatory mite abundances in boreal forests.

In the last few decades wild boar populations have expanded northwards, colonizing boreal forests. The soil disturbances caused by wild boar rooting may have an impact on soil organisms that play a key role in organic matter turnover. However, the impact of wild boar colonization on boreal forest ecosystems and soil organisms remains largely unknown. We investigated the effect of natural and simulated rooting on decomposer and predatory soil mites (total, adult and juvenile abundances; and adult-juvenile proportion). Our simulated rooting experiment aimed to disentangle the effects of (i) bioturbation due to soil mixing and (ii) removing organic material (wild boar food resources) on soil mites. Our results showed a decline in the abundance of adult soil mites in response to both natural and artificial rooting, while juvenile abundance and the relative proportion of adults and juveniles were not affected. The expansion of wild boar northwards and into new habitats has negative effects on soil decomposer abundances in boreal forests which may cascade through the soil food web ultimately affecting ecosystem processes. Our study also suggests that a combined use of natural and controlled experimental approaches is the way forward to reveal any subtle interaction between aboveground and belowground organisms and the ecosystem functions they drive.

Anthropogenic nitrogen enrichment enhances soil carbon accumulation by impacting saprotrophs rather than ectomycorrhizal fungal activity.

There is evidence that anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition enhances carbon (C) sequestration in boreal forest soils. However, it is unclear how free-living saprotrophs (bacteria and fungi, SAP) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi responses to N addition impact soil C dynamics. Our aim was to investigate how SAP and EM communities are impacted by N enrichment and to estimate whether these changes influence decay of litter and humus. We conducted a long-term experiment in northern Sweden, maintained since 2004, consisting of ambient, low N additions (0, 3, 6, and 12 kg N ha-1  year-1 ) simulating current N deposition rates in the boreal region, as well as a high N addition (50 kg N ha-1  year-1 ). Our data showed that long-term N enrichment impeded mass loss of litter, but not of humus, and only in response to the highest N addition treatment. Furthermore, our data showed that EM fungi reduced the mass of N and P in both substrates during the incubation period compared to when only SAP organisms were present. Low N additions had no effect on microbial community structure, while the high N addition decreased fungal and bacterial biomasses and altered EM fungi and SAP community composition. Actinomycetes were the only bacterial SAP to show increased biomass in response to the highest N addition. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of how anthropogenic N enrichment can influence soil C accumulation rates and suggest that current N deposition rates in the boreal region (≤12 kg N ha-1  year-1 ) are likely to have a minor impact on the soil microbial community and the decomposition of humus and litter.

Nitrogen enrichment impacts on boreal litter decomposition are driven by changes in soil microbiota rather than litter quality.

In nitrogen (N) limited boreal forests, N enrichment can impact litter decomposition by affecting litter quality and by changing the soil environment where litter decomposes. We investigated the importance of litter quality and soil factors on litter decomposition using a 2-year reciprocal transplant experiment for Picea abies needle litter, derived from plots subjected to 17 years of N addition, including control, low and high N treatments (ambient, 12.5 and 50 kg N ha-1 yr-1, respectively). Our data show that changes in soil factors were the main pathway through which N impacted litter decomposition, with rates reduced by ~15% when placed in high N relative to control plots, regardless of litter origin. Litter decomposition was correlated to soil microbiota, with Picea abies litter decomposition positively correlated with gram negative and fungal functional groups. Our results suggest that previous findings of increase soil C accumulation in response to N deposition is likely to occur as a result of changes in soil microbiota rather than altered litter quality.

Chronic Nitrogen Deposition Has a Minor Effect on the Quantity and Quality of Aboveground Litter in a Boreal Forest.

There is evidence that anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition enhances carbon (C) sequestration in boreal soils. However, key underlying mechanisms explaining this increase have not been resolved. Two potentially important mechanisms are that aboveground litter production increases, or that litter quality changes in response to N enrichment. As such, our aim was to quantify whether simulated chronic N deposition caused changes in aboveground litter production or quality in a boreal forest. We conducted a long-term (17 years) stand-scale (0.1 ha) forest experiment, consisting of three N addition levels (0, 12.5, and 50 kg N ha-1 yr-1) in northern Sweden, where background N deposition rates are very low. We measured the annual quantity of litter produced for 8 different litter categories, as well as their concentrations of C, N, phosphorus (P), lignin, cellulose and hemi-cellulose. Our results indicate that mosses were the only major litter component showing significant quantitative and qualitative alterations in response to the N additions, indicative of their ability to intercept a substantial portion of the N added. These effects were, however, offset by the other litter fractions where we found no changes in the total litter fluxes, or individual chemical constituents when all litter categories were summed. This study indicates that the current annual litter fluxes cannot explain the increase in soil C that has occurred in our study system in response to simulated chronic N application. These results suggest that other mechanisms are likely to explain the increased soil C accumulation rate we have observed, such as changes in soil microbial activity, or potentially transient changes in aboveground litter inputs that were no longer present at the time of our study.

Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition enhances carbon sequestration in boreal soils.

It is proposed that carbon (C) sequestration in response to reactive nitrogen (Nr ) deposition in boreal forests accounts for a large portion of the terrestrial sink for anthropogenic CO2 emissions. While studies have helped clarify the magnitude by which Nr deposition enhances C sequestration by forest vegetation, there remains a paucity of long-term experimental studies evaluating how soil C pools respond. We conducted a long-term experiment, maintained since 1996, consisting of three N addition levels (0, 12.5, and 50 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) ) in the boreal zone of northern Sweden to understand how atmospheric Nr deposition affects soil C accumulation, soil microbial communities, and soil respiration. We hypothesized that soil C sequestration will increase, and soil microbial biomass and soil respiration will decrease, with disproportionately large changes expected compared to low levels of N addition. Our data showed that the low N addition treatment caused a non-significant increase in the organic horizon C pool of ~15% and a significant increase of ~30% in response to the high N treatment relative to the control. The relationship between C sequestration and N addition in the organic horizon was linear, with a slope of 10 kg C kg(-1) N. We also found a concomitant decrease in total microbial and fungal biomasses and a ~11% reduction in soil respiration in response to the high N treatment. Our data complement previous data from the same study system describing aboveground C sequestration, indicating a total ecosystem sequestration rate of 26 kg C kg(-1) N. These estimates are far lower than suggested by some previous modeling studies, and thus will help improve and validate current modeling efforts aimed at separating the effect of multiple global change factors on the C balance of the boreal region.