The formation of soil organic matter via humification of plant litter is important for long-term carbon sequestration in forests; however, whether soil fauna affects litter humification is unclear. In this study, we quantified the effects of soil fauna on the optical properties (i.e., ΔlogK and E4/E6) of the alkaline-extracted humic acid-like solutions of four foliar litters by removing soil fauna via litterbags with different mesh sizes in two subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests. Litterbags were collected at the leaf falling, budding, expanding, maturation, and senescence stages from November 2013 to October 2015 to assess whether the effects of soil fauna on litter humification vary in different plant phenology periods. The results showed that soil fauna significantly reduced the ΔlogK and E4/E6 values in the leaf expanding stage of oak litter and in the leaf falling stage of camphor and fir litters. The richness index of soil fauna explained 21%, 55%, 19%, and 45% of the variations in the E4/E6 values for oak, fir, camphor, and pine litters, respectively. The effects of litter water content on these optical properties were greater than that of temperature. These results indicated that soil fauna plays a key role in litter humification in the leaf expanding and falling stages and are potentially involved in soil carbon sequestration in these subtropical forests.
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26 April 2019
Soil fauna affects the optical properties in alkaline solutions extracted (humic acid-like) from forest litters during different phenological periods
Yu Tan,
Wanqin Yang,
Xiangyin Ni,
Bo Tan,
Kai Yue,
Rui Cao,
Shu Liao,
Fuzhong Wu
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Canadian Journal of Soil Science
Vol. 99 • No. 2
June 2019
Vol. 99 • No. 2
June 2019
E4/E6
forest litter
Humification
soil fauna
ΔlogK