Slope aspect influences plant biomass, soil properties and microbial composition in alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau

Abstract

Difference in soil moisture, temperature and microclimate on sunny and shady slope aspect can lead to various plant community, sequentially modify soil microbial community. In this study, we measured soil properties including soil temperature, soil moisture, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN); plant properties including aboveground and underground biomass, and microbial properties including microbial carbon (C), nitrogen (N) content and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) to evaluate the effects of slope aspect on plant biomass, soil properties and microbial community in the alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that sunny sites had higher soil temperature, organic C and underground biomass (UB), while shady sites had higher soil moisture, TN and aboveground biomass (AB). Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that bacteria were the dominant soil microbes at sunny sites, while the fungi was more abundant at sites with a shady aspect. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that temperature was the major factor affecting the composition of the microbial community. It can be concluded, that slope aspect can significantly alter microbial composition due to the differences in plant community, soil properties and especially environmental factors.

Can Dominant Canopy Species Leaf Litter Determine Soil Nutrient Heterogeneity? A Case Study in a Tropical Rainforest in Southwest China

“…Soil pH was the least variable parameter as previous studies (Mulla and McBratney 2000), whereas high amount of rainfall in tropical forests suggests a possible explanation for soil parameters with some moderate CV values in our study site (Yavitt et al 2009). Soil nutrients of this study were consistent with data from previous studies in the tropical forest (Townsend et al 2008;Yavitt et al 2009;Xia et al 2015), which support the existence of high fine-scale soil nutrient heterogeneity (Warrick and Nielsen 1980;Wilding 1985), may be due to biotic factors (Anwar et al 2018;Truong and Marschner 2018), heterogeneous parent materials, age of substrate, and topographic factors (Dalling et al 2016;Xue et al 2018;Jucker et al 2018). In this study, the recorded average annual litterfall production of 7.3 Mg ha −1 year −1 is in the range as reported worldwide, showing mean values of 7.2 Mg ha −1 year −1 (Liu and Peng 2010) and 9.47 Mg ha −1 year −1 (Tang et al 2010) in tropical forests.…”

UAV RGB, thermal infrared and multispectral imagery used to investigate the control of terrain on the spatial distribution of dryland biocrust

“…Increased shadows and higher soil moisture, indicated by low PSIR and high ATI, are related to a higher content of soil nutrients, as shown in plots located in Zones 2 and 4, predominantly east‐ and north‐facing plots, respectively. Increased shadows and soil moisture control the survival and activity of microorganisms (Borken & Matzner, 2009 ; Drenovsky et al, 2004 ) and lead to better nutrient cycling and higher activity of microbial communities (e.g., Xue et al, 2018 ). This increased moisture favours not only the preservation of OrgCarb and its association with other mineral components (Plaza et al, 2013 ), but also the presence of vegetation and moss‐dominated biocrusts on the most humid slopes.…”

“…Vegetation patches enhance the accumulation of water and nutrient capture, which increase biological activity under and close to their cover (e.g., Okin et al, 2015 ). In addition, vegetation increases shadows which promotes microbial activity (e.g., Huang et al, 2015 ; Xue et al, 2018 ) and thus soil nutrients content. Macrochloa tenacissima in particular, the dominant species in the study area, modifies stocks of soil carbon and organic matter (e.g.…”

Land Suitability Evaluation for the Growth of <i>Chamaecyparis obtusa</i> Forest in Gyeongnam Province, South Korea

“…In plantation forest growth slope resulted a significant effect on the height-DBH relationships [39]. This is due to the capacity of slopes in modifying microclimate, soil microbial community and influencing ecological processes and spatial distribution of species across forest landscape [40,41]. Slope and aspect cause the impact on light trees need for growth and affects the forest productivity, thus, higher level of slope reduces the suitability of the land for growth of the species [42].…”