Does Litter Quality Change Affect the Decomposition of Soil Organic
Matter Under Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Warming?
Abstract
Soil property and litter quality are two key factors that control soil
organic matter decomposition. Under climate change, it remains unclear
how the changes of soil microbial community and litter quality affect
soil organic carbon decomposition, although significant changes of these
two factors have been reported intensively. This limits our ability to
model the dynamics of terrestrial soil carbon in a changing climate.
Using a long-term Free Air CO2 Enrichment facility
equipped with warming, we investigated the effect of soil property and
litter quality change on the decomposition rate of soil organic matter.
Results showed that significant change of litter quality was observed
under elevated CO2 and warming. Elevated
CO2 decreased the concentration of N of rice and wheat
straw, while warming decreased the concentration of N and K in wheat
straw. However, these changes in plant litter quality did not lead to a
shift in soil organic matter decomposition. The legacy effect of
long-term elevated CO2 and warming on soil properties
dominated the decomposition rate of soil organic matter. Elevated
CO2 suppressed soil organic matter decomposition mainly
by increasing phosphorous availability and lowering soil C/N,
fungi/bacteria ratio, and N-acetyl-glucosaminidase activity; while
warming or elevated CO2 plus warming had no effect on
soil organic matter decomposition. Our results demonstrated that the
change of soil properties other than litter quality control the
decomposition of soil organic carbon; and soil property change should be
taken into consideration in model developing when predicting terrestrial
soil carbon dynamics under elevated atmospheric CO2 and
warming.