Seasonal variations in plant species effects on soil N and P dynamics

It is well established that plant species influence ecosystem processes, but we have little ability to predict which vegetation changes will alter ecosystems, or how the effects of a given species might vary seasonally. We established monocultures of eight plant species in a California grassland in order to determine the plant traits that account for species impacts on nitrogen and phosphorus cycling. Plant species differed in their effects on net N mineralization and nitrification rates, and the patterns of species differences varied seasonally. Soil PO4- and microbial P were more strongly affected by slope position than by species. Although most studies focus on litter chemistry as the main determinant of plant species effects on nutrient cycling, this study showed that plant species affected biogeochemical cycling through many traits, including direct traits (litter chemistry and biomass, live-tissue chemistry and biomass) and indirect traits (plant modification of soil bioavailable C and soil microclimate). In fact, species significantly altered N and P cycling even without litter inputs. It became particularly critical to consider the effects of these multiple traits in order to account for seasonal changes in plant species effects on ecosystems. For example, species effects on potential rates of net N mineralization were most strongly influenced by soil bioavailable C in the fall and by litter chemistry in the winter and spring. Under field conditions, species effects on soil microclimate influenced rates of mineralization and nitrification, with species effects on soil temperature being critical in the fall and species effects on soil moisture being important in the dry spring. Overall, this study clearly demonstrated that in order to gain a mechanistic, predictive understanding of plant species effects on ecosystems, it is critical to look beyond plant litter chemistry and to incorporate the effects of multiple plant traits on ecosystems.     

Evidence for the dominance of indirect effects in 50 trophic ecosystem networks

Indirect effects are powerful influences in ecosystems that may maintain species diversity and alter apparent relationships between species in surprising ways. Here, we applied network environ analysis to 50 empirically-based trophic ecosystem models to test the hypothesis that indirect flows dominate direct flows in ecosystem networks. Further, we used Monte Carlo based perturbations to investigate the robustness of these results to potential error in the underlying data. To explain our findings, we further investigated the importance of the microbial food web in recycling energy-matter using components of the Finn Cycling Index and analysis of environ centrality. We found that indirect flows dominate direct flows in 37/50 (74.0%) models. This increases to 31/35 (88.5%) models when we consider only models that have cycling structure and a representation of the microbial food web. The uncertainty analysis reveals that there is less error in the I/D values than the ±5% error introduced into the models, suggesting the results are robust to uncertainty. Our results show that the microbial food web mediates a substantial percentage of cycling in some systems (median = 30.2%), but its role is highly variable in these models, in agreement with the literature. Our results, combined with previous work, strongly suggest that indirect effects are dominant components of activity in ecosystems.     

Toward a complete soil C and N cycle: incorporating the soil fauna

Increasing pressures on ecosystems through global climate and other land-use changes require predictive models of their consequences for vital processes such as soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. These environmental changes will undoubtedly affect soil fauna. There is sufficient evidence that soil fauna have significant effects on all of the pools and fluxes in these cycles, and soil fauna mineralize more N than microbes in some habitats. It is therefore essential that their role in the C and N cycle be understood. Here we introduce a new framework that attempts to reconcile our current understanding of the role of soil fauna within the C and N cycle with biogeochemical models and soil food web models. Using a simple stoichiometric approach to integrate our understanding of N mineralization and immobilization with the C:N ratio of substrates and faunal life history characteristics, as used in food web studies, we consider two mechanisms through which soil fauna can directly affect N cycling. First, fauna that are efficient assimilators of C and that have prey with similar C:N ratios as themselves, are likely to contribute directly to the mineral N pool. Second, fauna that are inefficient assimilators of C and that have prey with higher C:N ratios than themselves are likely to contribute most to the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool. Different groups of fauna are likely to contribute to these two pathways. Protists and bacteria-feeding nematodes are more likely to be important for N mineralization through grazing on microbial biomass, while the effects of enchytraeids and fungal-feeding microarthropods are most likely to be important for DOM production. The model is consistent with experimental evidence and, despite its simplicity, provides a new framework in which the effects of soil fauna on pools and fluxes can be understood. Further, the model highlights our gaps in knowledge, not only for effects of soil fauna on processes, but also for understanding of the soil C and N cycle in general.     

电子穿梭体及其介导的环境与地球化学过程研究进展

电子穿梭体是一类可通过自身氧化还原介导电子转移的化学物质的统称。在地球表层系统中,电子穿梭体可加速微生物向细胞外部进行的电子传递,参与矿物的微生物还原,驱动碳、氮、硫元素循环,并偶联有机污染物降解和重金属迁移转化。电子穿梭在自然界中存在广泛,对于元素循环、污染物环境行为以及微生物的生存行为影响深远,具有重要的环境地球化学意义。因此,该文以自然界存在的典型电子穿梭体为阐述对象,综述了以腐殖质、硫单质和生物炭为代表的三类典型穿梭体的反应特性。其中,腐殖质是土壤中天然存在的分布最广的穿梭体,硫单质是碱性环境下最典型的穿梭体,而生物炭则是稻田系统中人为输入的穿梭体。以上述三类穿梭体为核心,该文系统阐述了穿梭过程与碳氮循环、铁循环和污染物迁移转化的相互关系、以及穿梭体对微生物菌群变化产生的影响。在碳氮循环过程中,穿梭体主要参与有机碳的厌氧消耗、二氧化碳向甲烷的转化、氨氧化以及氧化亚氮向氮气的转化过程;在铁循环过程中,穿梭体主要影响氧化铁的还原溶解、含铁矿物的晶型转变以及氧化铁还原耦合的砷、铬污染物转化过程;而穿梭体作为电子受体,还可改变微生物的生长与竞争关系,调控微生物菌群。文章深入分析了穿梭过程在地球表层系统中产生的环境效应与生态效应,并提出了本领域今后需关注的重点,可为穿梭行为的进一步研究提供思考依据。     

Interaction networks in coastal soft-sediments highlight the potential for change in ecological resilience

Recent studies emphasize the role of indirect relationships and feedback loops in maintaining ecosystem resilience. Environmental changes that impact on the organisms involved in these processes have the potential to initiate threshold responses and fundamentally shift the interactions within an ecosystem. However, empirical studies are hindered by the difficulty of designing appropriate manipulative experiments to capture this complexity. Here we employ structural equation modeling to define and test the architecture of ecosystem interaction networks. Using survey data from 19 estuaries we investigate the interactions between biological (abundance of large bioturbating macrofauna, microphytobenthos, and detrital matter) and physical (sediment grain size) processes. We assess the potential for abrupt changes in the architecture of the network and the strength of interactions to occur across environmental gradients. Our analysis identified a potential threshold in the relationship between sediment mud content and benthic chlorophyll a, at -12 microg/g, using quantile regression. Below this threshold, the interaction network involved different variables and fewer feedbacks than above. This approach has potential to improve our empirical understanding of thresholds in ecological systems and our ability to design manipulative experiments that test how and when a threshold will be passed. It can also be used to indicate to resource managers that a particular system has the potential to exhibit threshold responses to environmental change, emphasizing precautionary management and facilitating a better understanding of how persistent multiple stressors threaten the resilience and long-term use of natural ecosystems.     

曝气复氧对底泥氮素生物地球化学循环影响的作用机制研究

通过分析底泥氮污染物释放规律和转化过程,以及底泥生境、氮形态变化和氮循环功能微生物群落结构变化的规律,探讨了不同曝气复氧条件影响底泥氮生物地球化学循环的生物代谢、物理化学联合作用的机制。结果表明：曝气复氧对底泥中氮的生物地球化学循环影响是一个包括微生物代谢作用和物理化学作用的复杂联合作用过程。水体好氧环境的改变主要引起参与底泥氮循环的硝化、亚硝化和反硝化功能菌群群落结构的演变,对异养菌和氨化菌的影响不大,证明环境好氧条件的改变对底泥有机质生物分解产生氨氮的微生物代谢过程影响不大,主要对底泥释放的氨氮硝化、反硝化等生物转化过程产生大的影响。不同溶解氧条件下,底泥释放的氮素在微生物作用下主要以NH4＋-N和NO3--N的形式进入试验体系,并在特定的氧化还原电位（临界值-200 mV）和pH（临界值6.70）条件下通过物理化学作用在底泥中以离子交换态氮（IEF-N）、碳酸盐结合态氮（CF-N）、铁锰氧化态氮（IMOF-N）及有机态和硫化物结合态氮（OSF-N）等不同形态氮相互转化,同时,在氮的转化和循环过程中部分输入上覆水体。在低溶解氧组实验条件下[ρ（DO）〈0.5 mg.L-1],底泥向水体输出氮总量为底泥可转化态氮的19.7%,主要为氨氮,最大释放速率达到289.13 mg.m-2.d-1,释放的质量浓度可达到18.8 mg.L-1;好氧条件下（DO饱和）,底泥向水体输出氮总量为底泥可转化态氮的1.8%;好氧-缺氧条件下为11.7%,主要以N2的形式释出系统。     

基于生态市建设的生态可持续发展研究——以常州市为例

以常州市为例,探讨了基于生态市建设的生态可持续发展的内涵,提出“生态保育区-生态提升区-生态新建区”的生态建设分区模式和市域生态防护网架是构建区域生态安全格局的基本框架和促进区域生态可持续发展的调控途径。     

Development and applications of functional gene microarrays in the analysis of the functional diversity, composition, and structure of microbial communities

Functional gene arrays (FGAs) are a special type of microarrays containing probes for key genes involved in microbial functional processes, such as biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and metals, biodegradation of environmental contaminants, energy processing, and stress responses. GeoChips are considered as the most comprehensive FGAs. Experimentally established probe design criteria and a computational pipeline integrating sequence retrieval, probe design and verification, array construction, data analysis, and automatic update are used to develop the GeoChip technology. GeoChip has been systematically evaluated and demonstrated to be a powerful tool for rapid, specific, sensitive, and quantitative analysis of microbial communities in a high-throughput manner. Several generations of GeoChip have been developed and applied to investigate the functional diversity, composition, structure, function, and dynamics of a variety of microbial communities from different habitats, such as water, soil, marine, bioreactor, human microbiome, and extreme ecosystems. GeoChip is able to address fundamental questions related to global change, bioenergy, bioremediation, agricultural operation, land use, human health, environmental restoration, and ecological theories and to link the microbial community structure to environmental factors and ecosystem functioning.     

Comments on and implications of a steady-state in coastal marine ecosystems

Coastal ecosystems can be thought of as being established by a number of physico-geochemical drivers, e.g. geochemistry and bathymetry of the basins, climate, tidal and freshwater flows, natural and anthropogenic inputs of nutrients and toxins, all of which exert an influence on the resulting communities of organisms. Depending on the interactions among the major drivers, ecosystems may occur on both large and small scales and be basin-wide or within basins. For individual and separate ecosystems to exist with some permanence in time, e.g. reach a steady-state, they also have to be ‘defended’. Defences are mechanisms that counter changes to maintain the status quo. We argue, and present evidence to support the notion, that the defence mechanisms are inextricably tied to primary production and the biogeochemical cycling of organic matter and provide buffers that mitigate potentially adverse impacts by trace toxins. Colloid pumping, production of complexing ligands and sulfide formation are some of the mechanisms that control trace substances. Current methods for assessing ecosystems do not address the issue of steady-state, nor do they take account of defence activities, e.g. buffering. Therefore, they cannot assess the ‘robustness’ of ecosystems or their ability to resist change, for good or bad. Also, defence mechanisms may, for a time, mask future potentially serious impacts, suggesting that monitoring efforts with limited budgets should consider the measurement of the inputs into ecosystems as well as the immediate or short-term result of the inputs.     

蒙古栎林生态系统的水分循环与养分循环关系

本文从群体水平上研究了蒙古栎林生态系统中的水分循环与养分循环的关系。结果表明,降雨是系统养分的重要输入。降雨对林冠的淋洗淋溶作用有助于养分的归还及缩短养分循环的途径。蒙古栎树干茎流量大,且其中含有的养分元素较多,从而使蒙古栎的根系能获得更多的水分与养分,有助于适应干旱、瘠薄的立地环境。径流是系统的水分输出,也是养分输出。蒙古栎林的下渗流约占整个径流的90％,且养分元素含量较低,从而有助于养分的积累。降雨在蒙古栎林内的分配格局不一,导致系统养分积累的明显差异。本文还探讨了干扰对养分循环与水分循环的影响。结果表明,采伐森林导致水分分配的变化,也使系统的养分发生亏损。只有把养分循环与水分循环结合起来,才能较完整地评价森林的生态功能。     

Biogeochemical consequences of rapid microbial turnover and seasonal succession in soil

Soil microbial communities have the metabolic and genetic capability to adapt to changing environmental conditions on very short time scales. In this paper we combine biogeochemical and molecular approaches to reveal this potential, showing that microbial biomass can turn over on time scales of days to months in soil, resulting in a succession of microbial communities over the course of a year. This new understanding of the year-round turnover and succession of microbial communities allows us for the first time to propose a temporally explicit N cycle that provides mechanistic hypotheses to explain both the loss and retention of dissolved organic N (DON) and inorganic N (DIN) throughout the year in terrestrial ecosystems. In addition, our results strongly support the hypothesis that turnover of the microbial community is the largest source of DON and DIN for plant uptake during the plant growing season. While this model of microbial biogeochemistry is derived from observed dynamics in the alpine, we present several examples from other ecosystems to indicate that the general ideas of biogeochemical fluxes being linked to turnover and succession of microbial communities are applicable to a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems.     

Nitrogen budget and its environmental loading in an urban ecosystem with the rapid urbanisation of China

A detailed nitrogen (N) budget has been developed for an urban ecosystem based on the method of material flow analysis. How increased human activity and urbanisation influences N cycling have also been analysed. Total N input and output in the urban ecosystem of Zhengzhou City (ZUE) was calculated at 304.8?Gg was 275.3?Gg year^?1, resulting in an N accumulation of 29.5?Gg year^?1. Industry and human life activities, which respectively accounted for 43.8% and 34.2% of total N inputs and 52.6% and 29.1% of total N outputs, were the core of N flow in the urban ecosystem. Humans activities mediated more than 98% N inputs into the ZUE, 73.2% of N was released into the atmosphere and 11.7% into hydrosphere. This very large volume of released N could contribute to regional problems. High energy consumption, insufficient wastewater treatment facility practices, and low N use efficiency are the primary causes of pollution. The major challenge ahead for the urban ecosystem is how to manage high-intensity N pollutant inputs to the urban ecosystems coupled with incomplete N cycling and removal. Based on the analysis of the N budget and loading, this study also proposes an N management strategy for the ZUE.     

Comparative network analysis toward characterization of systemic organization for human–environmental sustainability

A preliminary study in comparative ecological network analysis was conducted to identify key assumptions and methodological challenges, test initial hypotheses and explore systemic and network structural characteristics for environmentally sustainable ecosystems. A nitrogen network for the U.S. beef supply chain – a small sub-network of the industrial food system analyzed as a pilot study – was constructed and compared to four non-human carbon and nitrogen trophic networks for the Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades. These non-human food webs served as sustainable reference systems. Contrary to the main original hypothesis, the “window of vitality” and the number of network roles did not clearly differentiate between a human sub-network and the more complete non-human networks. The effective trophic level of humans (a partial estimate of trophic level based on the single food source of beef) was much higher (8.1) than any non-human species (maximum of 4.88). Network connectance, entropy, total dependency coefficients, trophic efficiencies and the ascendency to capacity ratio also indicated differences that serve as hypotheses for future tests on more comprehensive human food webs. The study elucidated important issues related to (1) the steady state assumption, which is more problematic for industrial human systems, (2) the absence or dearth of data on contributions of dead humans and human wastes to feed other species in an integrated food web, (3) the ambiguity of defining some industrial compartments as living versus non-living, and (4) challenges with constructing compartments and trophic transfers in industrial versus non-human food webs. The two main novel results are (1) the progress made toward adapting ecological network analysis (ENA) methodology for analysis of human food networks in industrial cultures and (2) characterizing the critical aspects of comparative ENA for understanding potential causes of the problems, and providing avenues for solutions, for environmental sustainability. Based on this work, construction and comparative network analysis of a more comprehensive industrial human food network seems warranted and likely to provide valuable insights for modifying structures of industrial food networks to be more like natural networks and more sustainable.     

Atmospheric deposition, mineralization and leaching of nitrogen in subtropical forested catchments, South China

In recent years, China has conducted considerable research focusing on the emission and effects of sulphur (S) on human health and ecosystems. By contrast, there has been little emphasis on anthropogenic nitrogen (N) so far, even though studies conducted abroad indicate that long-range atmospheric transport of N and ecological effects (e.g. acidification of soil and water) may be significant. The Sino-Norwegian project IMPACTS, launched in 1999, has established monitoring sites at five forest ecosystems in the southern part of PR China to collect comprehensive data on air quality, acidification status and ecological effects. Here we present initial results about N dynamics at two of the IMPACTS sites located near Chongqing and Changsha, including estimation of atmospheric deposition fluxes of NOx and NHx and soil N transformations. Nitrogen deposition is high at both sites when compared with values from Europe and North America (25-38 kg ha(-1) yr(-1)). About 70% of the deposited N comes as NH4, probably derived from agriculture. Leaching of N from soils is high and nearly all as NO3-. Transformation of N to NO3- in soils results in acidification rates that are high compared to rates found elsewhere. Despite considerable leaching of NO3- from the root zone of the soils, little NO3- appears in streamwater. This indicates that N retention or denitrification, both causing acid neutralization, may be important and probably occur in the groundwater and groundwater discharge zones. The soil flux density of mineral N, which is the sum of N deposition and N mineralization, and which is dominated by the N mineralization flux, may be a good indicator for leaching of NO3- in soils. However, this indicator seems site specific probably due to differences in land-use history and current N requirement.     

Topological analysis of the ecological importance of elasmobranch fishes: A food web study on the Gulf of Tortugas, Colombia

We built a trophic network based on a matrix of interspecific trophic relationships to assess the role of elasmobranch fishes in shaping community structure of the Gulf of Tortugas in the Colombian Pacific Ocean. We analyzed diet similarities to define trophic components (nodes) - rather than taxonomical groups - in the network. We evaluated the ecological function of species or trophic entities through topological analysis of their structural importance in trophic networks by applying one local and several mesoscale network indices. We found that top predatory elasmobranchs play an important ecological role in top-down control and in propagating indirect effects through the system owing to high values of the node degree, centrality and topological importance indices. However, invertebrates and teleost fishes had higher connectivity and topological importance than other elasmobranchs in the network before and after removal of top predators from the system. Results from our study thus suggest that elasmobranchs at intermediate trophic levels - commonly referred to as “mesopredators” - are not so important in all complex coastal ecosystems as previously reported.     

湿地生态系统硅生物地球化学循环研究进展

硅在地壳中的丰度仅次于氧,是地球表面大多数土壤和岩石的一种基本成分,也是水生植物（特别是硅藻类）以及多种作物生长所必需的营养元素,还是控制陆地、海洋、沿海和内陆水生态系统机能的重要营养元素。目前关于全球硅的生物地球化学循环的研究多集中在陆地和海洋两大生态系统,而湿地生态系统中硅的循环过程、储存量尚不清楚。虽然在河口湿地开展一些关于硅的相关研究,但是硅在湿地的循环机制研究不够全面,尤其相比碳、氮、磷等元素,硅素研究甚少。而且,国内关于硅的相关研究更为匮乏。本文在总结国内外关于湿地生态系统硅素研究的基础上,综述硅在湿地生态系统的存在形态与分布特征,阐述硅在湿地生态系统中的基本循环过程,列举影响硅在湿地生态系统中循环的主要因素,如：湿地类型、水淹时间、季节变化、人类干扰等;提出在今后研究工作中应进一步探索硅在湿地生态系统中迁移、转化的机制,加深研究人类活动对湿地生态系统硅循环的影响,特别是应该加强研究河口潮汐湿地和沿海湿地生态系统硅的生物地球化学循环过程和储存量,有助于明确湿地生态系统对于硅的截留量;并弄清湿地中碳与硅含量之间的关系,从水文学角度分析湿地中排水、蒸发、洪期及滞留时间等因素对硅循环的影响,从而试图建立湿地硅循环模型,有助于预测湿地生态系统硅循环对沿海地区赤潮等富营养化现象和全球气候变化的影响。     

Tree species control rates of free-living nitrogen fixation in a tropical rain forest

Tropical rain forests represent some of the most diverse ecosystems on earth, yet mechanistic links between tree species identity and ecosystem function in these forests remains poorly understood. Here, using free-living nitrogen (N) fixation as a model, we explore the idea that interspecies variation in canopy nutrient concentrations may drive significant local-scale variation in biogeochemical processes. Biological N fixation is the largest "natural" source of newly available N to terrestrial ecosystems, and estimates suggest the highest such inputs occur in tropical ecosystems. While patterns of and controls over N fixation in these systems remain poorly known, the data we do have suggest that chemical differences among tree species canopies could affect free-living N fixation rates. In a diverse lowland rain forest in Costa Rica, we established a series of vertical, canopy-to-soil profiles for six common canopy tree species, and we measured free-living N fixation rates and multiple aspects of chemistry of live canopy leaves, senesced canopy leaves, bulk leaf litter, and soil for eight individuals of each tree species. Free-living N fixation rates varied significantly among tree species for all four components, and independent of species identity, rates of N fixation ranged by orders of magnitude along the vertical profile. Our data suggest that variations in phosphorus (P) concentration drove a significant fraction of the observed species-specific variation in free-living N fixation rates within each layer of the vertical profile. Furthermore, our data suggest significant links between canopy and forest floor nutrient concentrations; canopy P was correlated with bulk leaf litter P below individual tree crowns. Thus, canopy chemistry may affect a suite of ecosystem processes not only within the canopy itself, but at and beneath the forest floor as well.     

宁夏引黄灌区农田土壤酶活性及其空间变异

采集了同一地点不同土地利用方式,及不同地点不同典型土地利用类型下银川平原的灌淤土样品,在分析了土壤基本理化性质的基础上,用奈氏比色法、苯磷酸二钠比色法和高锰酸钾滴定法,分别测定了宁夏引黄灌区农田不同利用方式下土壤的磷酸酶、脲酶、过氧化氢酶的活性状况,并对土壤酶活性与土壤的基本理化性质的相关性进行了相关分析。结果表明,土地利用方式对三种酶活性有很大的影响。12年果园磷酸酶活性最高,常年旱田脲酶和过氧化氢酶活性最高,而盐化旱田及常年淹水的稻田,三种酶活性都很低。脲酶活性与土壤全氮之间显著正相关,全磷与三种酶活性都极显著相关,三种酶之间达到显著或极显著正相关关系。表明磷酸酶、脲酶和过氧化氢酶活性的大小可以敏感地表征宁夏引黄灌区土壤肥力和生产力的高低。