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Siyi Liu
Public Documents
1
High nitrogen accumulation in alpine forest soils of southeastern Tibetan Plateau
Chuanhong Li
and 12 more
December 05, 2022
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.