Directory UMM :Data Elmu:jurnal:S:Soil Biology And Chemistry:Vol33.Issue2.Jan2001:

Substrate limitations to microbial activity in taiga forest ¯oors

E.D. Vance

a,

*, F.S. Chapin III

b

a_{National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc. P.O. Box 13318, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3318, USA} b_{Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA}

Received 12 January 2000; received in revised form 30 May 2000; accepted 6 June 2000

Abstract

A combination of laboratory and ®eld experiments showed substantial differences in microbial activity, substrate processing, and N cycling in forest ¯oor samples from different Alaskan boreal forest ecosystems. In soils from black spruce (Picea mariana[Mill.] B.S.P.) communities, low organic matter quality (e.g. low %N, high C:N, high lignin, high lignin:N, low pH, low extractable inorganic N) and cold soils were associated with low rates of soil respiration, microbial turnover and gross microbial N uptake in both laboratory and ®eld measurements. Soils from aspen (Populus tremuloidesMichx.) communities had attributes of low organic-matter quality (high lignin and high lignin:N) but also attributes favorable to decomposition (high pH, high %N, high soil temperature) and exhibited much higher relative microbial activity in the ®eld than in the laboratory, probably because warmer ®eld conditions or other processes that occurred only in the ®eld (e.g. root exudation) offset the effects of low organic matter quality. Field soils from birch (Betula papyriferaMarsh.) communities on warm sites also exhibited higher in situ rates of microbial activity than expected from their performance in the laboratory. Microbial activity was more important than microbial biomass in explaining community differences in soil respiration and N cycling.

Addition of labile carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) substrates to soils in the ®eld and in the laboratory permitted microbial resource limitations to be evaluated. Microbial response to added N was greatest when labile C was abundant. Microbial demand for available soil N was greatest in soils with the highest organic C concentrations and the lowest rates of N mineralization. These observations support the conventional concept that microbial activity responds to a balanced supply of C and N. However, microbial respiration responded more strongly to sucrose (®eld) and cellobiose (laboratory) than to cellulose addition, indicating that the degree of de®ned C limitation depends on the nature of the substrate added and the ability of microbial populations to utilize it. Respiration and N immobilization responded more strongly to substrate additions than did microbial biomass, suggesting that the nature of resource limitation depends on the particular microbial parameter considered. The response of microbial respiration to added C and N also depended on the quality of native soil organic matter.q₂₀₀₁

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Keywords: Boreal forest; Nutrient cycling; Microbial biomass; Respiration; Mineralization; Immobilization; Carbon; Nitrogen; Organic matter;15_{N; Nutrient} limitation of taiga communities; Soil microbial C vs. N limitation; Soil organic matter quality

1. Introduction

The productivity of any ecosystem is a function of the productive potential of component species and the degree to which environmental factors limit that potential. This concept has been extensively explored in plants, beginning with the work of Liebig in the late 19th century. Although changes in plant growth and allocation in response to chan-ging supplies of light, water, or nutrients are widely recog-nized (Mooney, 1972; Chapin III, 1980; Tilman, 1985; Ingestad and AÊ gren, 1988; Rastetter and Shaver, 1992), the nature of environmental limitation of soil microbial activity is less clearly understood. Energy supply is often

viewed as the major factor limiting soil microbial activity (Richards, 1987; Tate III, 1995) because of the hetero-trophic nature of decomposition. However, most soils contain 30±100 times more dead organic carbon (C) than live microbial C (Jenkinson and Ladd, 1981). Consequently, other factors such as substrate quality, nitrogen (N) avail-ability, physical environment (e.g. temperature and moist-ure), and physical protection by clays have been invoked as additional controls over microbial processing of soil organic matter (Swift et al., 1979; Richards, 1987; Tate III, 1995; Mary et al., 1996). For example, decomposition of organic matter in low-N soils might be limited by an inadequate N supply for microbial activity, leading to N immobilization (Melillo et al., 1982), reduced plant productivity, and reduced input of plant litter to soil microbes (Harte and Kinzig, 1993). Alternatively, the more recalcitrant nature

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of organic C produced by plants on low-N soils (Chapin III, 1980; Hobbie, 1992) or reduced rates of root exudation might reduce the supply of labile C substrates to microbes, resulting in reduced decomposition rates through changes in the amount of microbial biomass, its activity, or the commu-nity composition of soil microbes. Finally, the relative importance of C and N limitation may differ among micro-bial functional groups, e.g. bacteria and fungi (Paul and Clark, 1989), or across time scales (Norton and Firestone, 1996). The purpose of our study was to examine some of the direct and indirect ways in which substrate type and nutrient availability might in¯uence microbial use of C and N.

In most ecosystems, N availability is controlled by several aspects of the physical and chemical environment, including availability of other nutrients (partly a function of parent material), temperature, and moisture (Jenny, 1980; Vitousek and Howarth, 1991). These interactions of N avail-ability with the physical environment further complicate interpretations of N limitation of plant and microbial processes in natural ecosystems. The productivity of Alas-kan boreal forests is limited primarily by temperature and N availability (Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986), which vary dramatically over short distances due to changes in slope and aspect (Yarie, 1983; Viereck et al., 1986). Pools of organic N in these soils are large (Van Cleve et al., 1983), yet boreal forest productivity is often limited by low N availability. In this system, soil microbial activity is clearly a limiting step in the nutrient cycle Ð the ªeye of the needleº through which all organic materials entering the soil must pass before nutrients become available to plants (Jenkinson, 1977). In this paper we use a combination of ®eld and laboratory experiments to address the relative importance of C and N limitation to microbial processes in soils of differing organic matter quality. We focus on surface organic soils (i.e. forest ¯oors) in this study because they represent the zone of greatest micro-bial activity in boreal forests (Van Cleve and Moore, 1978).

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Study site and sample collection

The study area was located in the Bonanza Creek Experi-mental Forest, a 5000 ha boreal Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site 30 km west of Fairbanks, Alaska (658450N, 1488150W) that has been the focus of intensive ecosystem studies over the past two decades (Van Cleve et al., 1983; Viereck et al., 1983; Van Cleve et. al., 1986a). It consists of a series of forest types on a common parent material arrayed along a gradient of soil temperature and fertility related to slope and aspect. North-facing slopes have the lowest soil temperatures and support unproductive black spruce (Picea mariana [Mill.] B.S.P.) forests

characterized by low rates of nutrient cycling. The warmer south-, east-, and west-facing slopes are occupied by productive aspen (Populus tremuloidesMichx.), and birch (Betula papyriferaMarsh.)(Van Cleve et al., 1983; Viereck et al., 1986). Both aspen and birch forests are replaced by white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) forests after 80±120 years (Van Cleve et al., 1983; Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986). Soils at Bonanza Creek are derived from loess overlying Precambrian schist (Viereck et al., 1986) and are classi®ed as Al®c Cryochrepts in the birch and aspen communities studied, and Aquic Cryothents or Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts in the spruce communities (Viereck et al., 1986; Dyrness et al., 1989).

We chose study sites that had the same regional climate (subarctic), parent material (schist overlain by loess), poten-tial vegetation (Alaskan boreal forest species), and age (about 70 years) (Jenny, 1980), but which differed with respect to topography and associated community and ecosystem processes. We chose four community types (north-facing spruce, south-facing aspen, north-facing birch, and south-facing birch), allowing comparisons both within and among forest community types at mid-succes-sion. Based on previous research (Van Cleve et al., 1983, 1991), we expected that soils from the spruce community would exhibit lowest N availability due to both low soil temperature and low organic matter quality, that aspen and south-facing birch soils would be most fertile, and that birch soils from north-facing slopes would be inter-mediate. Factorial fertilization experiments have shown that tree growth in birch, aspen, and black spruce commu-nities in interior Alaska is N-limited (Van Cleve, 1973; Van Cleve and Oliver, 1982; Van Cleve et al., 1986b; Chapin, unpublished data). Thus, the communities in this study are more likely to differ in the degree of nutrient limitation than in the nature of the limiting nutrient.

We chose six replicate stands of each community type. These stands were interspersed along ®ve ridges throughout the experimental forest, allowing us to generalize results for these forest types to the region without pseudo-replication (Hurlbert, 1984). The sample from each stand was a compo-site of 20±30 15-cm diameter cores of the litter layer plus organic (O1and O2) horizons. In spruce communities, live

reference to the community type from which it was collected (e.g. aspen soil, south-birch soil).

2.2. Soil characterization

Soils collected in May 1988 were sieved and separated into subsamples that were either air-dried for chemical analysis or used directly for analysis of microbial C and N and extractable P. Total horizon weight was calculated from the total weight of sieved soil and soil moisture of duplicate oven-dried (65₈C) subsamples.

On air-dried soils we measured organic C with an induc-tion furnace (Nelson and Sommers, 1982), total N on a selenous sulfuric acid digest followed by autoanalysis (sali-cylate acid method, Kedrowski, 1983), sulfuric acid lignin and cellulose using the procedure of Goering and Van Soest (1970), and soil pH on a soil:deionized water paste using a standard electrode technique (McLean, 1982). Sample values were corrected to an oven-dry basis by drying dupli-cate subsamples to constant weight at 658C.

Microbial biomass N and C were determined using chloroform fumigation±extraction and k values of 0.54 and 0.38, respectively (Brookes et al., 1985; Vance et al., 1987). Fumigated and unfumigated soil samples were extracted with 0.5 M K2SO4and analyzed for total

extrac-table N (the sum of organic N, NH14;NO23) and organic C.

Microbial N and C were calculated as the increase in extrac-table N and extracextrac-table organic C, respectively, following fumigation. Filtered extracts were analyzed for NH14 using a

phenol hypochlorite assay and NO32using the

Griess±Illos-vay procedure in combination with a Cd-reduction column on a modi®ed Technicon autoanalyzer II (Whitledge et al., 1981). Total N in soils and soil extracts was determined by digesting in selenous sulfuric acid followed by autoanalysis (salicylate acid method, Kedrowski, 1983). Organic C in extracts was determined using dichromate digestion, as described by Vance et al. (1987). Sodium bicarbonate-extractable PO342 was determined using the method of

Olsen and Sommers (1982).

To aid in the interpretation of the ®eld respiration data described below, we measured ®eld soil moisture, extracta-ble inorganic N and soil temperature at 10 cm for samples collected during the ®eld respiration study. The stand differ-ences in soil temperature at this time were representative of measurements made at our ®eld sites from June to August of 1988±1990 (unpublished data) and at similar sites from 1989±1997 (http://www.lter.uaf.edu).

2.3. Field respiration and mineralization experiments

To determine microbial respiratory response to C and N availability, cellulose or sucrose, with and without added N (as (NH4)2SO4), was applied to 1 m2®eld plots in June 1990.

Each treatment was replicated twice in each of four stands per community type. Cellulose or sucrose was applied to the plots at a rate of 400 g C m22, and (NH4)2SO4was

surface-applied at a rate of 20 g N m22, resulting in a C:N ratio of

addition of 20:1 for plots where both C and N were added. Sucrose and N were dissolved in a small amount of water and applied in solution, and the same amount of water applied to control and cellulose-only plots. By comparison, annual C additions in litterfall are about 100, 62, and 17 g C m22

for birch, aspen and spruce communities, respec-tively (Van Cleve et al., 1983), assuming litterfall is about 40% C. Annual litterfall N additions are about 1.9, 1.5, and 0.3 g m22for these respective communities (Van Cleve et al., 1983).

Field CO2 evolution was measured using soda lime to

absorb respired CO2(Edwards, 1982). Measurements were

made over 35 days (June to early July) for cellulose and over nine days for sucrose (June), using inverted, weighted plas-tic buckets (two in each of four stands per community type) 33 cm in diameter pushed 1 cm into the forest ¯oor. Inside each bucket, a container holding 40 g of 6±12 mesh soda lime was placed on a wire mesh stand and collected after 24±48 h. Changes in the oven dry (1008C over night) weight of the soda lime were used in calculating respired CO2.

Field N mineralization and nitri®cation were measured using incubations of soil cores in gas-permeable polyethy-lene bags (Binkley et al., 1986). Three replicate 15.2 cm diameter soil cores encompassing litter layer and organic (O1 and O2) horizons were collected from each stand (a

total of 18 buried bags for each community type). Cores were cut in half length-wise and one-half was sieved to remove roots, extracted in 0.5 M K2SO4, and analyzed for

NH14±N and NO32±N as described above. The other half of

the soil core was placed intact in a polyethylene bag and incubated in the 0±10 cm soil layer. After 31 days, incu-bated cores were collected, sieved, extracted, and analyzed as above. Net N mineralization was estimated as the increase in inorganic …NH141NO23† N between the two

time periods.

2.4. Laboratory incubation experiments

2.4.1. Microbial activity and biomass

incubated in 910 ml glass jars with sealed lids and rubber septa for analysis by gas chromatography, using a Shimadzu model gc-8a thermal conductivity chromatograph. Samples were aerated every few days. Identical samples were incu-bated in 250 ml polyethylene bottles covered with polyethy-lene ®lm (to allow gaseous diffusion) for interim destructive sampling and extractions. Net mineralization was deter-mined by extracting and analyzing soils for NH1₄ and NO2₃ at the beginning of the incubation, and after 2, 4, 10, and 21 days as described above.

2.4.2. Microbial response to C and N amendments

Responses of microbial respiration, N mineralization, and microbial biomass N to varying levels of added C substrates, with and without added N, were also determined over 60 days of laboratory incubation. Soils were collected from ®ve south-birch and ®ve black spruce stands in summer 1989 to compare systems contrasting in productivity and rates of nutrient cycling. Cellulose or cellobiose was used as the C amendment. Although both compounds are comprised of glucose molecules, cellulose is the most common carbohy-drate constituent of plant litter and contains about 14,000 glucose units per chain, whereas cellobiose is a more labile disaccharide (Schlegel, 1986). Soils were amended with one of six concentrations of milled cellulose or cellobiose (0, 3.2, 6.5, 13, 26, and 65 mg C g21dry soil) with or without addition of N (as (NH4)2SO4), for a total of 22 treatments

with ®ve stand replicates of each. The increase in soil C resulting from these amendments ranged from about 1± 16%. The C substrates were added to the soils as dry powder and mixed in thoroughly. Nitrogen was added at a rate of 1300mg N g21dry soil by adding 1±3 ml of a solution of

(NH4)2SO4, depending on the initial water content of the

sample relative to the desired water content (ca. 50% WHC; see above). The N solution was added to individual samples following C addition and mixed in thoroughly. The respective C:N ratios of the amendments were thus 2.5:1, 5:1, 10:1, 20:1, and 50:1. Non-amended samples were trea-ted identically to amended samples by adding the same amount of deionized water before mixing. Extractable inor-ganic and orinor-ganic N and microbial biomass N were analyzed prior to and at the end of the incubation period (ca. 60 days) as described above.

2.5.15N immobilization experiments

The objective of the laboratory 15N experiments was to measure the rate of microbial 15N immobilization at N concentrations similar to those occurring in the ®eld. Because background inorganic N concentrations of the soils vary greatly (i.e. south-birchq_north-birch.

aspenq_{spruce), different amounts of} 15_{N were added}

to each. Consequently, the goal of these experiments was to add enough 15N to be detected after dilution by unlabeled (i.e. native) soil inorganic N, but not enough to alter microbial activity.

Soils were collected in January 1989, thawed, and pre-incubated for four to six days before 2 ml of a solution of (15NH4)2SO4 containing 99 at.% excess 15N was added to

each sample and mixed in thoroughly. For soils from south-birch, north-birch, aspen, and spruce communities, the respective amounts of N added were 10, 10, 7, and 3mg N g21 dry soil. Soils were analyzed for extractable

NH1₄ and NO2₃ and microbial 15N after 2, 4, 10, and 21 days incubation.

15

Nitrogen in acid digests and soil extracts was deter-mined by neutralizing the digests with 10 M NaOH (MgO and Devardo's alloy were used for undigested extracts) and trapping the N on ®lter paper disks acidi®ed with 1 M H2SO4(K2SO4for extracts) (Brooks et. al., 1989; Liu and

Mulvaney, 1992a,b). 15Nitrogen was analyzed in diffused samples by direct combustion mass spectrometry using an automated Ritterburg technique (Liu and Mulvaney, 1992a,b).

The proportion of added 15N immobilized in microbial biomass was determined using fumigation±extraction (see above). Gross (i.e. total) immobilization over the initial two days of incubation was also estimated by multiplying the fraction of15N immobilized using fumigation±extraction by the background inorganic N soil concentration, assuming that microbial uptake of labeled and unlabeled N was proportional to their relative abundance:

iˆ ‰15Nb=15NaŠ‰NH14±N†eŠ;

whereiis the gross immobilization, 15Nb the 15N immobi-lized in microbial biomass as measured by fumigation± extraction, 15Na the 15N added to soil, and (NH41±N)ethe

extractable, unlabeled soil NH41±N concentration.

2.6. Statistical analysis

One and two-way analysis of variance tests were carried out to determine the signi®cance of community type or treatment effects. Overall treatment and community effects and effects at individual sample dates were determined using the Bonferroni procedure, correcting signi®cance levels for the number of comparisons made (Snedecor and Cochran, 1980).

3. Results

3.1. Soil characterization

south-facing birch communities were chemically similar to one another except for a slightly lower pH and trend towards higher cellulose concentrations in north-birch soils. North-birch soils also had signi®cantly…P_,0:05†higher extrac-table P concentrations and tended to be colder than south-birch soils.

3.2. Community differences in microbial processes

Field soil respiration rate differed signi®cantly …P_,

0:05†among communities according to the following rank-ing: south-birch.aspen.north-birch.spruce (Fig. 1a). There was thus a trend toward higher soil respiration for communities on south-facing slopes than those on north-facing slopes (particularly spruce) which was similar to the soil temperature trend (Table 1). Communities also differed …P,0:05† in net N mineralization in the ®eld, with spruce again showing the lowest rate (actually net immobilization; Table 2). Whereas south-birch showed the highest ®eld respiration rate (Fig. 1a), its net N mineralization rate was intermediate between the other deciduous communities and spruce (Fig. 2, Table 2). Nitri-®cation followed the same ranking for communities as did mineralization, with only 6±12% of the mineralized N being nitri®ed. Spruce soils had the largest pool size of soil E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Table 1

Soil characteristics expressed on a dry weight basis (mean^1 SE,nˆ6 stands). Values followed by different letters within each parameter are signi®cantly different…P,0:05†

Parameter Community

South-birch North-birch Aspen Spruce

pH 5.8^0.1 a 5.1^0.2 b 6.4^0.2 a 3.7^0.0 c C (%) 41.4^0.5 a 42.0^0.8 a 40.3^0.9 a 41.9^0.6 a N (%) 1.50^0.03 a 1.50^0.02 a 1.57^0.03 a 0.83^0.01 b C:N 27.6^0.8 a 28.2^0.8 a 25.5^1.3 a 51.4^1.3 b Lignin (%) 30.0^0.5 a 30.8^0.6 a 36.3^1.4 b 38.9^0.7 b Lignin:N 20.0^0.4 a 20.6^0.7 a 22.1^0.6 a 47.8^1.2 b Cellulose (%) 13.2^0.3 a 15.6^0.5 ab 16.5^0.3 b 20.3^1.0 c Organic horizon weight (g m22) 2180^220 a 3290^350 a 3670^700 a 6530^820 a

Field microbial pools (g m22₎

Microbial C 27.0^5.5 a 47.2^11.3 a 34.9^4.6 a 67.0^11.4 b Microbial N 3.7^0.7 a 6.0^1.6 a 5.5^0.6 a 5.3^0.7 a

Extractable inorganic Na_{(mg kg}21₎

Labb ₁₀₂

^35 a 102^41 a 31.9^6.2 ab 0.20^0.23 b

Fieldd _70.8

^16.7 a 44.1^7.7 ab 46.3^28.7 ab 2.2^0.6 bc

Extractable P (mg kg21_{) 48}

^5 a 85^5 b 56^8 a 41^5 a

Soil moisture (% dry wt.)

Labb,c 169^1 a 212^6 b 200^1 ab 202^20 ab Fieldd 137^18 a 132^3 a 156^7 a 122^14 a

June/July soil temp. (8C)

Fieldd 12.5^0.7 ab 9.9^0.5 a 13.1^0.8 b 4.0^0.6 c

a _NH1

4±N1NO23±N†

b _{Measured prior to lab respiration experiments.}

c _{Approximately 50% of water holding capacity.}

d _{Measured prior to ®eld respiration experiments.}

organic matter and microbial C (Table 1) but the lowest rates of soil respiration, N mineralization, and nitri®cation (Fig. 1a, Table 2), indicating that community differences in microbial biomass were poor predictors of soil activity.

Laboratory incubations allowed a comparison of micro-bial activity in a common physical environment in the absence of plant roots and associated mycorrhizal fungi. As in the ®eld, there were signi®cant community effects on soil activity, but the relative rankings among commu-nities differed from those in the ®eld. In the laboratory, aspen soils had respiration and N mineralization rates that were just as low as those of spruce, whereas north- and south-birch soils had rates of respiration and N mineraliza-tion which were similar to one another and higher than those of aspen and spruce soils (Figs. 1b and 2; Table 3). These community differences in respiration and N mineralization were most pronounced in the ®rst week of the incubation, suggesting that the birch soils had higher initial concentra-tions of labile C than did the aspen or spruce soils. This labile C pool may have been rendered available under laboratory conditions that were more optimal than those existing in the ®eld.

The microbial biomass C per gram dry soil did not differ …P_.0:05† among the four communities, although values tended to be higher in birch soils than in aspen or spruce soils (Table 4). This was a similar trend among soils as found for laboratory respiration (Fig. 1b). Microbial C comprised a similar percentage of total soil C (2.4±3.3%) across all communities. There was a signi®cant…P,0:05†

overall community effect on microbial N and microbial C/N ratio, largely due to the low concentration of microbial N in spruce soils (Table 4). Turnover times for microbial C and N in laboratory incubations tended to be longer in spruce and aspen soils than in birch soils. The extremely slow turnover of microbial N calculated for spruce soil was related to near-zero inorganic N concentrations (Table 1).

Spruce and aspen soils, which had the lowest laboratory respiration and net N mineralization rates (Table 3), showed the highest…P,0:05†proportion of added15N immobilized in laboratory incubations. Over 90% of added15N immobi-lized in microbial biomass after two days (Fig. 3a), indicat-ing a strong microbial demand for N relative to that available in soils with low microbial activity. By contrast, south-birch and north-birch soils immobilized only 65 and 50%, respectively, of added15N in microbial biomass after two days. Added N also remained immobilized for a longer period of time in spruce soils than in soils from the other communities. After 21 days incubation, twice as much of the added 15N remained immobilized in spruce soils compared with north-birch soils. Despite a smaller quantity of 15N added to spruce soil (15N added in proportion to background inorganic N concentrations, see Materials and Methods), the amount of15N immobilized per unit microbial N (i.e. the microbial 15N concentration) was higher …P, 0:05†in spruce soils than in the other soils (Fig. 3b), again indicating a high microbial demand for N. As expected, those soils showing the lowest proportion of added micro-bial15N immobilized (i.e. birch soils) had the highest…P, 0:05† proportion of added 15N in the K2SO4 extractable

(organic1inorganic) pool, even after 21 days (Fig. 3a). Gross N immobilized as estimated by the fumigation± extraction was highest (and similar) in the two birch soils, more moderate in aspen, and very low in spruce (Table 5). This indicates that the large proportion of 15N immobi-lized in spruce soils (Fig. 3a) re¯ects the small quantity of inorganic N available with a slow rate of turnover (Table 4) rather than a high absolute quantity of N immobilized.

3.3. Carbon and nitrogen effects on soil respiration

Soil respiration in the ®eld was strongly stimulated…P_,

0:05†by sucrose addition in all communities (Fig. 4). Except in spruce, the magnitude of the increase was nearly 100% and was clearly evident within one day of application, suggesting that it initially stimulated microbial activity rather than growth. There was also a strong sucrose£N interaction…P,0:05†;such that N alone had no effect on respiration but sucrose1N resulted in a near two-fold increase in respiration compared to that in the sucrose-only treatment. The sucrose£N interaction required more time to develop than the sucrose effect, possibly suggesting an effect on microbial growth. Spruce soil respiration responded much less to sucrose and sucrose1N and was more delayed than in soils from the other communities. E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Table 2

Field net mineralization and net nitri®cation over 35 days (mean^1 SE,

nˆ18 cores). Values followed by different letters within each parameter are signi®cantly different…P,0:05†

Community Mineralization (mg N g21_soil d21₎

Nitri®cation (mg N g21soil d21)

South-Birch 1.8^0.4 ab 0.10^0.06 ab North-Birch 4.1^1.0 a 0.48^0.19 a Aspen 3.6^1.6 a 0.23^0.12 ab Spruce 20.06^0.02 b 0.00^0.00 b

In contrast to the sucrose addition, cellulose did not signi®cantly …P,0:05† affect ®eld respiration in any community (Fig. 5). Nitrogen addition stimulated …P_,

0:05† respiration in the north-birch, aspen, and spruce soils about one month after application (Fig. 5). There was a signi®cant…P_,0:05†cellulose£N interaction only in south-birch soils, where cellulose stimulated respiration only in the presence of added N. The long time lag before soil respiration responded to added N could suggest a plant-mediated response (e.g. root or mycorrhizal respiration) rather than a direct microbial response, although we have no direct evidence to substantiate this hypothesis.

In summary, ®eld soil respiration responded primarily to labile C (sucrose) in the short-term (,9 days), but also responded to N in the longer-term (20±40 days). The respiratory response to N was induced more strongly and rapidly by sucrose than by cellulose.

Laboratory studies of C and N amendments to south-birch and spruce soils allowed a more detailed examination of C£N interactions under controlled conditions and in the absence of plant roots and associated mycorrhizae. As in the ®eld, there was an overall signi®cant…P_,0:05†effect of labile carbon substrate (cellobiose) on laboratory respira-tion in both south-birch and spruce soils (P_,0:05;Fig. 6). Individual cellobiose treatments were only signi®cantly …P,0:05† higher than the control at the three highest amendment rates in birch and at the two highest amendment

rates in spruce, however. The stimulation due to cellobiose was observed at the ®rst sample interval (two days) and disappeared within a month, presumably due to exhaustion of added substrate. Added N stimulated …P_,0:05† cello-biose decomposition only at the highest C addition level (65 mg g21) in south-birch soils and at the two highest C addition levels in spruce soils.

In contrast to cellobiose, cellulose alone stimulated…P_,

0:05† respiration only at the two highest addition levels in south-birch soils (Fig. 7), and this stimulation was detect-able only after two weeks. Nitrogen alone signi®cantly suppressed respiration. However, N in combination with cellulose (only at the three highest levels) stimulated…P, 0:05† respiration and reduced the time for a respiratory response to be detected (data shown only for the two highest addition levels; Fig. 7). This resulted in a signi®cant…P, 0:05†N£cellulose interaction. Thus, substrate limitation to respiration was demonstrable only at relatively high rates of cellulose and cellulose1N addition. Respiration in these treatments returned to control levels in all but the highest cellulose addition level by the end of the experiment, indi-cating exhaustion of added substrate. In contrast to birch, there was little detectable effect of cellulose or N addition on respiration in spruce soils (Fig. 7). Although there was a signi®cant …P_,0:05† N_£cellulose interaction in spruce soils, this effect was much less pronounced and more delayed than in birch soils.

E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Table 3

Cumulative respiration, net mineralization, and net nitri®cation during 21 days laboratory incubation (mean^1 SE,nˆ6 stands). Values followed by different letters within each parameter are signi®cantly different…P,0:05†

Community Respiration (mg CO2C g21 soil d21₎

Mineralization (mg N g21soil d21₎

Nitri®cationmg N g21soil d21) Mineralized C:N

South-birch 0.28^0.02 ab 1.89^1.08 ab 0.07^0.04 a 146 North-birch 0.30^0.02 a 4.60^1.06 a 0.08^0.05 a 66 Aspen 0.19^0.00 b 20.49^0.29 b 0.00^0.00 a a Spruce 0.17^0.01 b 0.01^0.01 b 0.00^0.00 a a

a _{Values not calculated due to extremely low or negative mineralization rates.}

Table 4

Microbial biomass in organic horizons (mean^1 SE,nˆ6). Values followed by different letters within each parameter are signi®cantly different…P,0:05†

Community Microbial C (mg g21soil)

Microbial N (mg g21soil)

MC/MN Microbial C (% of soil organic C)

Microbial turnover time

Microbial C Microbial N

Day 2a _{Day 4}b _{Day 0±2}c

South-birch 12:1^2:2 a 1.8^0.3 a 7:1^1:0 a 2:9^0:5 a 20.1^4.7 a 27.9^5.7 a 61.7^8.5 a North-birch 13:8^2:2 a 1.6^0.3 ab 8:3^1:5 a 3:3^0:6 a 19.2^5.0 a 34.2^8.2 ab 58.0^14.4 a Aspen 10:7^1:6 a 1.7^0.2 ab 6:4^0:3 a 2:6^0:4 a 42.3^11.2 a 45.8^6.1 ab 108^17 a Spruce 10:1^0:6 a 0.8^0.04 b 12:4^0:7 b 2:4^0:1 a 40.0^5.5 a 57.1^7.1 b 1320^50 b

a _{Microbial C turnover, at day 2ˆmicrobial C/respiration C at day 2.} b _{Microbial C turnover, at day 4ˆmicrobial C/respiration C at day 4.}

3.4. Carbon and nitrogen effects on microbial N immobilization

The disappearance of inorganic N (added1initial) over the 60 days incubation period provides a direct estimate of net microbial N uptake. This estimate includes microbial biomass N present at the end of the experiment plus N that was immobilized and subsequently released as enzymes or as dead microbial cell fragments. Added C substrate signi®cantly increased N immobilization …P_,0:05†;

regardless of soil type (birch or spruce), substrate type (cellobiose or cellulose), or soil N status (N added or not added) (Fig. 8; Table 6). The only exception to this result was when cellulose was added to spruce soils in the absence of added N, where no N immobilization was detected (Table 6). Soil type, C substrate type, and N addition all affected the magnitude of N immobilization in response to C addition.

The most dramatic response to C addition occurred in birch soils, where net N mineralization occurred below 13 mg C g21soil (cellobiose or cellulose), and net immobi-lization occurred at higher levels of C addition (Fig. 8; Table 6). In the presence of added N, the proportion of inorganic N that was immobilized at the highest C addition rate was greater with cellulose (100%) than with cellobiose (90%) (Fig. 8). This may re¯ect the exhaustion of the less resistant cellobiose by the end of the experiment (Fig. 6). Without added N, most (89±97%) of the initial soil inorganic N was also immobilized at the highest C addition (Table 6).

The effect of C substrate on N immobilization by spruce soils differed in several respects from the patterns observed in birch soils. In contrast to birch soils, N added to spruce soils was immobilized at all C addition rates, ranging from 40% of added1initial N with no C addition to 100% of added1initial N with the highest cellobiose addition rate E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Fig. 3. Microbial15_{N immobilization over 21 days of laboratory incubation,} representing (a) percentage recovery of added 15_{N in soil microbial and} extractable (organic1inorganic) pools and (b) percentage of total micro-bial N comprised of15N. Data are means^SE, nˆ6 stands.

Table 5

Gross N immobilization during laboratory incubation (mean^1 SE,

nˆ6) (measurement made over initial two days following15_{N addition)} Community Gross immobilization

(mg N g21_{soil d}21₎

North-birch 28:0^14:4 South-birch 29:0^16:5 Aspen 15:9^3:6 Spruce 0:6^0:1

(Fig. 8). The lower sensitivity of spruce N immobilization to cellulose addition, relative to birch (Fig. 8), is consistent with the low sensitivity of microbial respiration to cellulose addition in spruce soil (Fig. 7). Without added N, calculated immobilization rates in spruce soils were close to zero due to low background soil concentrations (,1mg N g21soil;

Table 6).

Microbial biomass N (Fig. 9) was much less sensitive to addition of C substrates than was either microbial respira-tion (Figs. 6 and 7) or the amount of N immobilized by microbes (measured as the change in inorganic N) over the course of the experiment (Fig. 8; Table 6). This suggests that the major effects of C substrate addition were on micro-bial biomass turnover and/or activity rather than on amount of microbial biomass occurring following substrate utiliza-tion. Cellobiose signi®cantly enhanced …P,0:05† micro-bial N in birch soils (with added N), but signi®cantly decreased microbial N in spruce soils (without added N) (Fig. 9). By contrast, cellulose had no signi®cant effect…P, 0:05†on microbial N during laboratory incubations of either soil with or without added N (Fig. 9). Both results indicate greater microbial population responses to the more labile substrate. Nitrogen addition signi®cantly increased …P, 0:05†microbial N in spruce soils but signi®cantly decreased …P_,0:05†microbial N in birch soils (although the effect was not signi®cant in the cellulose experiment), suggesting a stronger N limitation or slower turnover of microbial biomass in spruce than in birch soils.

4. Discussion

Our results show two striking patterns. Firstly, the

rank-ing ®eld process rates among communities differed from their relative ranking in the laboratory, indicating important controls over soil activity in the ®eld that are not adequately captured in controlled laboratory incubations. Secondly, variations among communities and among resources affected individual microbial processes differently, indicat-ing that the concept of limitation cannot be applied simply to soil microorganisms.

4.1. Community differences

Our laboratory incubations indicate that organic matter quality and/or the associated microbial commu-nity contribute to the large differences in soil respira-tion, productivity and N cycling among Alaskan boreal ecosystems (Fox and Van Cleve, 1983; Flanagan and Van Cleve, 1983; Van Cleve et al., 1983; Viereck et al., 1986; Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986). Under favorable laboratory conditions, black spruce soils exhibited low rates of soil respiration, low microbial uptake (i.e. gross immobilization), low net mineralization and nitri®cation, high microbial C:N ratios, high 15N retention by microbes, and slow microbial C and N turnover. Low microbial activity in spruce soils persisted even when N was added, so it cannot be entirely explained by micro-bial N limitation. These micromicro-bial responses are logical consequences of several indices of low organic-matter quality (high C:N, high lignin, high lignin:N), as observed previously in Alaskan black spruce ecosystems (Van Cleve et al., 1983, 1986b; Flanagan and Van Cleve, 1983) and elsewhere (Melillo et al., 1982; Berendse et al., 1987; Taylor et al., 1989), indicating that organic matter quality must have been an important E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

control over microbial activity. The lack of microbial response (respiration, N immobilization, biomass N) to cellulose addition in the spruce soils shows that quantity of soil C was also not limiting. Our results show that the combined effects of low organic matter quality and low N availability in spruce soils are likely to be important in redu-cing microbial N uptake and increasing microbial N retention. The effective microbial sequestration of N in spruce soils likely reduces the amount of N available for plant uptake and contributes to the low rates of N uptake and cycling and low productivity observed in Alaskan black spruce forests (Van Cleve et al., 1983, 1986a).

A surprising result from the laboratory incubations was that microbial process rates in aspen soils were generally as low as those in spruce soils. Similarly, Van Cleve et al. (1986b) observed that laboratory N mineralization rates were much lower in soils from aspen communities than in soils from birch communities. Aspen stands have the highest rates of soil C and N cycling and the highest productivity of any upland ecosystem type in interior Alaska (Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986; Van Cleve et al., 1986a). A high lignin concentration was the only chemical indicator of low organic matter quality in aspen soil, suggesting that this and/or other unmeasured substrate quality parameters restrict microbial activity under favorable laboratory condi-tions. More importantly, the rapid N cycling and high N availability characteristic of aspen soils in the ®eld must re¯ect processes that were absent or reduced under labora-tory conditions. For example, root exudation, invertebrate grazing of microbes, or the activity of mycorrhizal or other fungal networks could compensate for or negate the effects of low aspen organic matter quality evident in laboratory experiments. Another striking community difference observed in laboratory incubations was the high initial respiration rates of birch soils, which presumably re¯ected labile C pools that were larger or more readily released under favorable laboratory conditions than those in aspen or spruce soils.

In contrast to temperate forest ecosystems where ®eld pools of microbial biomass C and N correlate positively with primary productivity and N cycling (Myrold et al., 1989; Zak et al., 1994), we found the largest microbial C pools in soils from unproductive black spruce communities and smallest microbial C and N pools in soils from produc-tive south-birch (Table 1). This suggests that community differences in microbial biomass pools were a consequence rather than a cause of contrasting organic matter accumula-tion. Similarly, microbial biomass was negatively correlated with nutrient release and plant growth in tropical forests (Singh et al., 1989). In laboratory incubations, we observed large differences in microbial activity and turnover among communities, despite similar concentrations (per g soil) of microbial biomass. This also suggests that community differences in microbial activity per unit biomass were more important than the amount of microbial biomass in determining observed patterns of C and N processing during E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Fig. 6. Effect of cellobiose and N amendments on laboratory soil respiration over 60 days for south-birch and spruce communities. Results are shown for the control, N only, and the two highest C treatments (26 mg C g21_{soil and} 65 mg C g21_{soil) with and without added N. Data are means}

^SE,nˆ5 stands.

Fig. 7. Effect of cellulose and N amendments on laboratory soil respiration over 60 days for south-birch and spruce communities. Results are shown for the control, N only, and the two highest C treatments (26 mg C g21_{soil and} 65 mg C g21_{soil) with and without added N. Data are means}

incubations. Large community differences in microbial activity per unit biomass probably re¯ect differences in: (1) the proportion of inactive (dormant) microbial biomass; (2) the degree of substrate limitation of microbial activity (see resource limitation); and/or (3) the metabolic rates, turnover, and growth ef®ciency of different microbial func-tional groups (Swift et al., 1979; Burns, 1983; Richards, 1987; Tate III, 1995).

The high concentration of microbial C (per g soil) in boreal soils is probably a consequence of their high organic matter content, because their microbial C per unit total organic C is in the general range (1±3%) of that in tempe-rate mineral soils (Jenkinson and Ladd, 1981; Martikainen

and PalojaÈrvi, 1990; Wolters and Joergensen, 1991; Spar-ling, 1992; Wardle, 1992). The high microbial C:N ratio that we observed in acidic spruce soils has also been found in other forest soils (Vance et al., 1987; Joergensen et al., 1995; but see Martikainen and PalojaÈrvi, 1990; Badalucco et al., 1992) and could re¯ect the dominance of fungi, including mycorrhizae, which have C:N ratios 10:1 or greater compared with ratios of 4:1 to 6:1 for soil bacteria (Tate III, 1995). In general, the microbial C:N ratios we observed were within the range of those measured by fumi-gation±extraction in other soils (Martikainen and PalojaÈrvi, 1990; Badalucco et al., 1992; Cheng and Virginia, 1993; Joergensen et al., 1995).

E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

Fig. 8. Effect of cellobiose and cellulose amendments, with added N, on soil inorganic N immobilization over 60 days laboratory incubation for south-birch and spruce communities. Immobilization was estimated using the difference between extractable, inorganic N at the beginning and end of the incubation. Data are means^SE,nˆ5 stands.

Table 6

Net N immobilization in south-birch and spruce soils amended with cellulose or celloboise without added N over 60 days laboratory incubation (mean_^1 SE,

nˆ5) (measured by change in soil inorganic N N…NO1

3±N1NH14±N†over 60 days incubation; negative values depict N mineralization). Values followed by different letters within each soil are signi®cantly different…P,0:05†

C added (mg C g21_{soil) Celloboise (mg N g}21_{soil d}21) _{Cellulose (mg N g}21_{soil d}21)

South-bircha _{Spruce South-birch}a _Spruce

0 24.6^0.6 a 20.06^0.01 a 23.2^0.6 a 20:06^0:01 a 3 22.6^0.7 ab 20.06^0.03 ab 21.4^0.5 b 20:08^0:03 a 6 20.8^0.6 b 20.03^0.01 ab 20.4^0.2 b 20:04^0:01 a 13 2.2^0.8 c 20.01^0.00 ab 0.2^0.1 c 20:06^0:02 a 26 3.4^0.5 c 20.01^0.00 ab 0.2^0.05 c 20:05^0:02 a 65 3.9^0.5 c 0.00^0.00 b 0.3^0.06 c 20:03^0:01 a

Under ®eld conditions, rates of all microbial processes were lower in cold black spruce commu-nities and higher in warm aspen commucommu-nities than observed in our laboratory incubations, indicating the key role of soil temperature and/or correlated processes in regulating microbial activity in Alaskan boreal forests (Van Cleve et al., 1983, 1991). Root respiration, which accounts for more than half of soil respiration in Alaskan boreal forests (Ruess et al., 1996), could also contribute to differences in patterns observed between laboratory and ®eld measurements. The high temperature sensitivity of roots compared to soil microbes (Boone et al., 1998) could explain why soil respiration is consistently high-est in south-facing sites (aspen and south birch) in the ®eld but not in laboratory incubations. Root growth may also explain the long-term (20 days) response of soil respiration to N addition in the ®eld that did not occur in laboratory incubations. Other potentially important processes that could explain observed differ-ences between ®eld and laboratory results include wetting±drying and freeze±thaw cycles (Clein and Schimel, 1994; Schimel and Clein, 1996) and trophic interactions (Clarholm, 1985).

4.2. Microbial resource limitation

Our results show that a simple catagorization of soil microbes as C- or N-limited ignores a diversity of microbial responses by different processes and populations. Both

laboratory and ®eld substrate-addition experiments showed that the microbial response to C limitation depended on the availability of N, the nature of the C substrate, and factors associated with soil type (e.g. organic matter quality, pH, and probable differences in microbial community composi-tion).

Microbial respiration and N immobilization generally responded most strongly to large C additions when N was abundant and in soils characterized by high rates of N mineralization (Figs. 4±9). This ®nding is consistent with hypotheses based on the concept of microbial C vs. N limitation and with observations from other studies of microbial responses to labile C additions (Moore, 1981). Nitrogen addition has also generally stimulated cellulose decomposition in other studies, with the extent of stimula-tion dependent on substrate C:N ratio and soil N availability (Schmidt and Ruschmeyer, 1958; Rosswall, 1974; Knapp et al., 1983; Entry and Backman, 1995; Mary et al., 1996). In spruce soils, which had lower available N than birch soils (Tables 1 and 2), N immobilization and respiration required larger C additions to elicit a response than in birch soils, consistent with the generalized C/N limitation concept.

The inhibition of microbial respiration by the addition of N alone in south-birch soils in the laboratory has been observed in some boreal forest soils (Foster et al., 1980; SoÈderstroÈm et al., 1983) and in agricultural soils (Mary et al., 1996), but other boreal soils show no respiratory response to N addition (spruce in the current study; Moore, 1981; Salonius, 1972). Since added N stimulated respiration in the presence of an available C source, it is E.D. Vance, F.S. Chapin III / Soil Biology & Biochemistry 33 (2001) 173±188

unlikely that the N-induced inhibition is a simple toxic or osmotic effect. Added N may reduce C availability to microbes by condensing with soil humus (Nohrstedt et al., 1989). Nitrogen addition may also repress fungal ligninoly-tic activity (Keyser et al., 1978) or reduce the production of enzymes to attack N-containing organic matter (Hu and van Bruggen, 1997), but this is unlikely to directly reduce C supply.

The stimulation of ®eld respiration by added N could have re¯ected a root rather than a microbial response, judging from the long time lag (.2 weeks) and lack of a stimulation of respiration in root-free laboratory incubations (our results; Flanagan and Van Cleve, 1983; Flanagan, 1986). Nitrogen addition stimulates root growth in N-limited environments (Drew and Saker, 1975) such as the forest types that we studied (Van Cleve, 1973; Van Cleve and Oliver, 1982; Van Cleve et al., 1983, 1986b), and root respiration accounted for most of the total soil respiration in black spruce forests close to our study sites (Flanagan and Van Cleve, 1977; Ruess et al., 1996). Similarly, increases in root biomass and activity likely contributed to the increase in ®eld soil respiration in response to 6 years of N and P fertilization in another interior Alaska aspen stand (Van Cleve and Moore, 1978).

The nature of the C substrate strongly in¯uenced the respiratory response to added C, presumably due to differ-ences in the ease of enzymatic breakdown, mobility in soils, and/or microbial use. Cellulose breakdown requires a cellu-lase enzyme complex whereas sucrose and cellobiose are disaccharides, whose breakdown products can be absorbed following attack by a single enzyme (Schlegel, 1986; Paul and Clark, 1989). In addition, both cellulose and the cellu-lase enzyme system are relatively immobile in soils (Swift et al., 1979; Burns, 1983), so that the synthesis of cellulase may be less sensitive to substrate availability (Manning and Wood, 1983) than would enzymes speci®c to more mobile substrates. Alternatively, microbes that favor labile C substrates may be more C-limited or increase their respira-tion rate more strongly in response to substrate addirespira-tion than do cellulose decomposers. It seems unlikely that the high native cellulose concentrations in these soils (Table 1) completely saturate the C demands of cellulose decompo-sers, as evidenced by increased N immobilization in response to even small cellulose additions in the laboratory (Fig. 8; Table 6). Our inability to detect a general microbial response to large ®eld cellulose additions may re¯ect a predominance of different processes controlling ®eld C availability (e.g. root exudation or microbial population crashes) or to the fact that substrate was added to the soil surface (to minimize soil disturbance) rather than incorpo-rated.

Differences in the response to C and N additions among microbial processes provide insight into nutritional controls over microbial activity. Immobilization of 15N occurred without C addition (Fig. 3a) and immobilization of added N increased in response to even small additions of C

(cellu-lose or cellobiose; Fig. 8), indicating that microbial N utili-zation had a lower response threshold to C and N supply than did respiration. This could re¯ect: (1) microbial N storage; (2) N uptake and release of N-containing exoen-zymes at substrate addition rates that failed to stimulate microbial growth; or (3) a shift to microbial populations with higher N concentrations (e.g. decreased fungi:bacteria ratio; Paul and Clark, 1989; Tate III, 1995). In spruce soils, N addition alone increased microbial N, also suggesting increased N storage and/or a decreased fungi:bacteria ratio. Potential for N storage would appear to be most likely for fungi, since they vary more widely in N concentration and C:N ratio than do bacteria (Paul and Clark, 1989). The high proportion of added N that was immobilized in spruce soils (Fig. 8), coupled with large ®eld microbial pools, may also indicate strong microbial competitive pressure for N that is slowly mineralized in these communities. The ques-tion remains, however, as to why added N suf®cient to meet microbial demand does not also increase microbial respira-tion rates. These ®ndings are consistent with those from a heath tundra ecosystem, where added N and P fertilizer accumulated in soil microbial biomass without affecting microbial growth (Michelsen et al., 1999).

Two factors not directly addressed in our study are the potential nutritional role of organic N sources and the role of mycorrhizal fungi in taiga communities. Uptake of amino acids has been demonstrated for some boreal forest trees (NaÈsholm et al., 1998). The occurrence of organic N uptake does not negate strong evidence that inorganic N availabil-ity is an important factor limiting the productivavailabil-ity of taiga ecosystems, as demonstrated by ®eld relationships among productivity, organic matter decomposition, and N miner-alization, and from nutrient manipulation experiments (Van Cleve et al., 1983; Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986). This evidence suggests that any direct organic N uptake occur-ring on our sites is insuf®cient to fully meet the N require-ments of plants. Ectomycorrhizal fungi, which are active in boreal forest soils, have also been shown to decompose organic matter and directly utilize organic N sources (Smith and Reed, 1997a). Ectomycorrhizae are also likely to be more dependent on simple sugars as C sources and are likely less able to utilize complex polymers such as lignin and cellulose than are other soil fungal species (Smith and Reed, 1997b). Although our ®eld amendment studies would have included the respiratory responses of mycorrhizal fungi, we did not investigate their speci®c role in organic matter decomposition.

are microbial toxins (Swift et al., 1979); (3) high lignin concentrations, which limit enzymatic access to cellulose; (4) low pH or low cation concentrations (Van Cleve and Yarie, 1986; Table 1), which reduce cellulase activity (Schmidt and Ruschmeyer, 1958; Hope and Burns, 1987; Tateno, 1988; Raubuch and Beese, 1995) and increase stabi-lity of polyphenol±protein complexes (Richards, 1987); and (5) low temperature (Fox and Van Cleve, 1983; Table 1), which limits both microbial metabolism and enzyme activ-ity. Endocellulase activity, in particular, decreases at soil temperatures below 5±108C in tundra ecosystems, and cellulase activity declines at cellulose:lignin ratios below 0.5 (Linkins et al., 1984). However, microbial populations in spruce soils did respond to the addition of limiting, parti-cularly labile, substrates, indicating that no unmanipulated factor was an absolute constraint on microbial respiration. Our results, therefore, support the general conclusion of French (1988) that decomposition is seldom limited by a single factor. He proposed that enzyme activity is constrained directly by a combination of substrate (e.g. quantity and quality of C), environment, and physical access of enzyme to substrate. In addition, rates of enzyme produc-tion are in¯uenced by availability of appropriate decompo-ser organisms, which may be restricted by climatic, soil, or substrate factors.

5. Conclusion

Our results show that community differences in soil ferti-lity in the Alaskan boreal forest, caused by differences in slope, aspect, and vegetation type, have profound effects on a range of microbial processes. Field and laboratory comparisons showed that organic matter quality, as modi-®ed by differences in the physical environment and asso-ciated plant community, was an important cause of community differences in microbial activity along this complex gradient in temperature, N availability, and organic matter quality. Moreover, even when community differ-ences in environmental factors (i.e. soil temperature and moisture) were eliminated in laboratory incubations, there was evidence that energy supply, N supply, and other unma-nipulated variables associated with organic matter quality or microbial community composition were each important in controlling microbial activity. Thus, labile C and N simul-taneously limited microbial activity in these soils. Although the concept of microbial C vs. N limitation provides a super-®cial ª®rst-cutº explanation of differences in microbial activity along soil fertility gradients, the mechanisms by which C and N affect microbial processes depend crucially on the nature of C inputs and the effects of native organic matter on microbial activity.

Our laboratory incubations showed that, despite similar microbial biomass C concentrations in all soils, soils with lowest organic matter quality (spruce and aspen) immobi-lized the highest proportion of added15N but had the lowest

respiration and net mineralization, the longest microbial C and N turnover times, and the lowest gross immobilization (uptake) of added15N. By contrast, soils with higher organic matter quality (i.e. birch) had high gross rates of15N uptake but turned over this immobilized N rapidly due to their high rates of respiration and N mineralization. In general, north-birch soils had highest microbial activity in laboratory incu-bations and spruce soils the lowest. The primary difference between ®eld and laboratory results was for aspen, which occur on warm, south-facing slopes and had higher respira-tion and N mineralizarespira-tion rates than expected from their performance in the laboratory. This suggests that favorable environmental conditions may have partially overshadowed the negative effects of low organic matter quality in this community.

Acknowledgements

We thank Keith Van Cleve for conceptual input and use of laboratory facilities, Don Herman, Knut Kielland, Lola Oliver, Vicki Merchlewitz, Lori Moilanen, Tim Quintel, Steve Whalen, Brigitte Yeager, and Hailin Zhong for tech-nical assistance and conceptual contributions, and Valerie Eviner, Sarah Hobbie, Dave Hooper, Shuijin Hu, Michelle Mack, and Josh Schimel for critical review of the manu-script. Support for this research came from the National Science Foundation and the Long-Term Ecological Research grants.

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