Dependence of Soil Properties under Alpine Lichen Heath Community on the Soil Water Content and the Presence of Vaccinium vitis-idaea
2020
Makarov, M. I. | Sabirova, R. V. | Kadulin, M. S. | Malysheva, T. I. | Zhuravleva, A. I. | Onipchenko, V. G. | Aksenova, A. A.
An increasing participation of dwarf shrubs and shrubs in plant communities of alpine meadows and a tendency to a decrease in summer precipitation in mountain regions determine the relevance of assessing the role of ectomycorrhiza and ericoid mycorrhiza, as well as the soil moisture status, in nutrient availability for plants and microorganisms. The properties of a mountain-meadow soil (Umbric Leptosol), including labile forms of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus and the soil biological activity were studied under the alpine lichen heath in the Teberda Reserve at different soil water contents and in the presence or absence of Vaccinium vitis-idaea in the plant community. The soil under V. vitis-idaea was characterized by higher acidity, and the response of its properties to changes in the soil water content was less pronounced. In the absence of this dwarf shrub, soil properties pronouncedly differed in response to changes in the water content. Under herbaceous vegetation, the content of inorganic nitrogen, the activity of N-mineralization and nitrification, microbial biomass, and soil respiration decreased with a drop in soil moisture, whereas the concentration of labile organic carbon and nitrogen and the activity of exoenzymes increased. Such changes attest to a shift in the organic matter transformation from mineralization to depolymerization, which is more typical of ectomycorrhiza- and ericoid mycorrhiza-dominated ecosystems.
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