Rapid Shifts in Soil Nutrients and Decomposition Enzyme Activity in Early Succession Following Forest Fire

Knelman, Joseph E.; Graham, Emily B.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Lecoeuvre, Aurelien; Labrado, Amanda; Darcy, John L.; Nemergut, Diana R.; Schmidt, Steven K.

doi:10.3390/f8090347

Title: Rapid Shifts in Soil Nutrients and Decomposition Enzyme Activity in Early Succession Following Forest Fire

Journal Article · Fri Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Forests

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/f8090347· OSTI ID:1393742

Knelman, Joseph E. ^[1]; Graham, Emily B. ^[2]; Ferrenberg, Scott ^[3]; Lecoeuvre, Aurelien ^[4]; Labrado, Amanda ^[5]; Darcy, John L. ^[1]; Nemergut, Diana R. ^[6]; Schmidt, Steven K. ^[1]

Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces, NM (United States)
Univ. de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest (France)
The Univ. of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (United States)
Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)

In post-disturbance landscapes nutrient availability has proven a major control on ecological succession. In this study, we examined variation in connections between soil nutrient availability and decomposition extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) across post fire secondary succession in forest soils as well as after a secondary flood disturbance. We also examined possible linkages between edaphic properties and bacterial communities based on 16S rRNA gene analysis. We found that with advancing succession in a post-fire landscape, the relationship between soil nutrients and EEA became stronger over time. In general, late successional soils showed stronger connections between EEA and soil nutrient status, while early successional soils were marked by a complete decoupling of nutrients and EEA. We also found that soil moisture and bacterial communities of post-fire disturbance soils were susceptible to change following the secondary flood disturbance, while undisturbed, reference forest soils were not. Our results demonstrate that nutrient pools correlating with EEA change over time. While past work has largely focused on ecosystem succession on decadal timescales, our work suggests that nutrients shift in their relative importance as a control of decomposition EEA in the earliest stages of secondary succession. Furthermore, this work emphasizes the relevance of successional stage, even on short timescales, in predicting rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling, especially as disturbances become more frequent in a rapidly changing world.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1393742

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-120687

Journal Information:: Forests, Vol. 8, Issue 9; ISSN 1999-4907

Publisher:: MDPICopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 37 works

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
carbon
decomposition
disturbance
ecosystem process
extracellular enzymes
exoenzymes
forest fire
nitrogen
soil enzymes
succession

Title: Rapid Shifts in Soil Nutrients and Decomposition Enzyme Activity in Early Succession Following Forest Fire

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