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High nitrogen accumulation in alpine forest soils of southeastern Tibetan Plateau
  • +10
  • Chuanhong Li,
  • Siyi Liu,
  • Lin Zhang,
  • Yi Cheng,
  • Zhiming Zhang,
  • Fang He,
  • Baomin Yao,
  • LIli Han,
  • Yuan Ge,
  • Baodong Chen,
  • Guoxin Sun,
  • Congcong Shen,
  • Li-mei Zhang
Chuanhong Li
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Siyi Liu
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Lin Zhang
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Yi Cheng
Nanjing Normal University
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Zhiming Zhang
Yunnan University
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Fang He
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Baomin Yao
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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LIli Han
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Yuan Ge
Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Baodong Chen
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Guoxin Sun
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Congcong Shen
Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Li-mei Zhang
Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) deficiency has been recorded in the top surface of Tibetan Plateau. However, the variation of soil N availability across the elevational gradient in alpine forests remains poorly understood. Here, the elevational patterns and determinants of soil N composition, key N transformation processes and functional microbes across three typical mountains on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau were characterized by multiple techniques. Our results showed that soil total N and ammonium were markedly enriched in high elevation zones where a stable N release via mineralization and extremely low net nitrification were observed. Further, the increasing biological N fixation rates along the elevation driven by abiotic (i.e., high organic carbon) and biotic (i.e., key diazotrophic taxa like Bradyrhizobium, Herbaspirillum and Klebsiella) factors greatly benefited N accumulation at high elevations. Our study offers new insights into the N dynamics in alpine forests on the Tibetan Plateau under scenarios of future climate change.