Nitrogen addition change soil N pools with litter removal or not in subtropical forest

ABSTRACT

There are many nitrogen (N) pools in soil, so their availability and different status can give information about bulk soil response to N deposition. However, the different size of N pools in forest soils and the relationship between them have not been well studied under N deposition when considering the role of litter. Here soil in an N-deposition experiment carried out for 5 years in a broad-leaved forest was used as an object to study the response of N pools to N deposition by stepwise extraction using water or solutions containing 0.5 M K₂SO₄, 2.5 M H₂SO₄ (LPI), or 13 M H₂SO₄ (LPII), and calculation of recalcitrant (RC) N pool. Under N control (CT), soil with the presence of litter had a higher N of 23.8–106.8% in the first four pools, but lower of 80.6% in recalcitrant N pool compared with soil with the absence of litter. In the absence of litter, N addition increased soil N in labile pool but decreased N in the RC pool compared to CT and these impacts were greater at high added N (HN) than low-added N (LN) rates. However, in the presence of litter, LN increased the amount of N in the K₂SO₄- extracted pool and HN reduced that in the water extracted pool. Additionally, LN and HN increased TN in the RC pool and HN increased the total soluble N (TSN) in the LPI and LPII pool. N changes in the water extraction pool were attributed to inorganic N, whereas they were NH₄ ⁺ and soluble organic N (SON) in the K₂SO₄-extracted, LPI, and LPII pools. In the presence of litter, HN increased the SON concentration in the K₂SO₄, LPI, and LPII extractions; thus, SON may be a potentially important N form for N availability. These results suggested that N additions improve the accumulation of N in RC pool with the presence of litter. The different effects of N additions on soil N pool or N form in each pool depend on litter present or not.