Contrasting effects of long-term acid rain simulation on temperature sensitivity of soil respiration and enzymatic activities in a subtropical forest

• Published in: Journal of soils and sediments 2020, Vol.20 (1), p.412-424
• Main Authors: Chen, Shutao, Sun, Lu, Zhang, Xu, Shen, Xiaoshuai, Liu, Yifan, Ren, Jingquan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acid rain; Acidic soils; Biological activity; Catalase; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Physics; Enzymatic activity; Enzyme activity; Forest ecosystems; Forests; Invertase; Long-term effects; Rain; Respiration; Sec 4 • Ecotoxicology • Research Article; Simulation; Soil; Soil investigations; Soil Science & Conservation; Soil temperature; Soils; Temporal variations; Trenching; Urease; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1439-0108; 1614-7480
• DOI: 10.1007/s11368-019-02385-5

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of acid rain simulation (ARS) on soil respiration ( R s ) components and enzymatic activities. Materials and methods An 8-year field ARS experiment was conducted in a subtropical forest. A trenching method was used to partition R s into heterotrophic respiration ( R h ) and autotrophic respiration ( R a ). Soil urease, invertase, and catalase activities were measured after long-term ARS application. Results and discussion The repeated-measures ANOVA indicated that there was no significant ( P  > 0.05) difference in annual mean R s (or R h ) between SAR plots from March 2016 to February 2018. R s was significantly ( P   0.05) differences in Q 10 of R s (or R h ) between ARS treatments, indicating that the ARS effect on Q 10 was not significant. ARS induced a decline in soil urease activity in both untrenched and trenched plots on most measurement dates. The soil invertase and catalase activities were significantly ( P