[Seasonal changes of ammonia-oxidizing bacterial communities during tropical forest restoration].

In this study, we used a high-throughput sequencing technology to survey the dry-wet seasonal change characteristics of soil ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) communities in the three restoration stages [i.e., community (early stage), community (middle stage), and community (later stage)] of Xishuangbanna tropical forest ecosystems.

[Effects of ant colonization on spatiotemporal variation of organic carbon mineralization in Xishuangbanna tropical forest soils].

Ants as ecosystem engineers can increase the input of soil organic matter, change soil physicochemical properties, and stimulate microbial activities through their colonization, thus affecting the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil organic carbon mineralization. We explored the spatiotemporal characteristics of carbon mineralization rates in ant nests and the adjacent soils in Syzygium oblatum community of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. We analyzed the association of the variation in carbon mineralization rates with soil physicochemical properties.

The contributions of underground-nesting ants to CO emission from tropical forest soils vary with species.

The aboveground ant nests are admitted as hot spots for CO emissions which increase heterogeneity of soil carbon (C) flux in forest ecosystems. However, little is known about effects of underground-nesting ant species on C emissions in tropical forests, where the ants have high diversity and abundance. In this study, we chose three underground-nesting ant species with different feeding-behaviors (Pheidole capellini - predominantly honeydew harvester, Odontoponera transversa - predominantly predator, and Pheidologeton affinis - scavenger) to explore their impacts on soil CO emission in Xishuangbanna tropical forest, China.