Opposite effects of soil pH on bacteria and fungi β diversity in forests at a continental scale.

Soil microbial diversity is crucial for regulating biogeochemical cycles, including soil carbon (C) dynamics and nutrient cycling. However, how climate, plants, and soil properties influence the microbiome in forests remains unclear, especially at the continental scale, hindering us to better understand forest C-climate change feedback. Here, we investigated the spatial patterns of microbial diversity across China's forests and explored the controlling factors of microbial β diversity and network complexity.

Soil fungal community has higher network stability than bacterial community in response to warming and nitrogen addition in a subtropical primary forest.

Unlabelled: Global change factors are known to strongly affect soil microbial community function and composition. However, as of yet, the effects of warming and increased anthropogenic nitrogen deposition on soil microbial network complexity and stability are still unclear. Here, we examined the effects of experimental warming (3°C above ambient soil temperature) and nitrogen addition (5 g N m year) on the complexity and stability of the soil microbial network in a subtropical primary forest.

Assessing the Impact of Green Transformation on Ecological Well-Being Performance: A Case Study of 78 Cities in Western China.

The contradiction between the endless pursuit of material possessions and finite natural resources hampers ecological well-being performance (EWP) improvement. Green transformation, recognized as an emerging strategy in sustainable development, can help to coordinate ecological, social, and economic growth by optimizing resource usage, with the ultimate objective of enhancing EWP. This research quantifies how green transformation influences EWP by using panel data from 78 prefecture-level cities in western China from 2012 to 2019.

Functional fungal communities dominate wood decomposition and are modified by wood traits in a subtropical forest.

Wood decomposition is a fundamental process of the carbon cycle in forest ecosystems and differs under varying environmental conditions. However, it remains unclear whether exposure situation and litter removal affect wood decomposition, especially in subtropical forests. Therefore, we chose wood from four dominant species and carried out an experiment with treatments consisting of placing wood in ground contact with and without litter input and above ground exposure.

Effects of short-term grazing prohibition on soil physical and chemical properties of meadows in Southwest China.

Background: Grassland plays an important role in the ecosystem, but overgrazing harms the grassland system in many places. Grazing prohibition is an effective method to restore grassland ecosystems, and it plays a great role in realizing the sustainable development of grassland systems. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out research on the influence of regional grazing prohibition on the physical and chemical properties of different grassland systems.

Stable Mercury Isotope Transition during Postdepositional Decomposition of Biomass in a Forest Ecosystem over Five Centuries.

Organic soil is an important transient reservoir of mercury (Hg) in terrestrial ecosystems, but the fate of deposited Hg in organic forest soil is poorly understood. To understand the dynamic changes of deposited Hg on forest floor, the composition of stable Hg and carbon (C) isotopes in decomposing litters and organic soil layer was measured to construct the 500 year history of postdepositional Hg transformation in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaf forest in Southwest China. Using the observational data and a multiprocess isotope model, the contributions of microbial reduction, photoreduction, and dark reduction mediated by organic matter to the isotopic transition were estimated.

Soil warming increases soil temperature sensitivity in subtropical Forests of SW China.

Background: Soil respiration ( ) plays an important role in the concentration of atmospheric CO and thus in global climate patterns. Due to the feedback between and climate, it is important to investigate responses to climate warming.

Methods: A soil warming experiment was conducted to explore responses and temperature sensitivity ( ) to climate warming in subtropical forests in Southwestern China, and infrared radiators were used to simulate climate warming.

Stable Isotope Evidence Shows Re-emission of Elemental Mercury Vapor Occurring after Reductive Loss from Foliage.

The mechanism of elemental mercury (Hg) re-emission from vegetation to the atmosphere is currently poorly understood. In this study, we investigated branch-level Hg atmosphere-foliage exchange in a pristine evergreen forest by systematically combining Hg isotopic composition, air concentration and flux measurements to unravel process information. It is found that the foliage represents a diurnally changing sink for atmospheric Hg and its Hg content increases with leaf age and mass.

Dry-hot stress significantly reduced the nitrogenase activity of epiphytic cyanolichen.

Nitrogen (N) fixed by epiphytic cyanolichens (i.e. lichens that contain cyanobacterial symbionts) is thought to be the most important resource of this nutrient in some natural forest ecosystems.

Carbon exchanges and their responses to temperature and precipitation in forest ecosystems in Yunnan, Southwest China.

Forest ecosystems play an increasingly important role in the global carbon cycle. However, knowledge on carbon exchanges, their spatio-temporal patterns, and the extent of the key controls that affect carbon fluxes is lacking. In this study, we employed 29-site-years of eddy covariance data to observe the state, spatio-temporal variations and climate sensitivity of carbon fluxes (gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (R), and net ecosystem carbon exchange (NEE)) in four representative forest ecosystems in Yunnan.

Water use efficiency in a primary subtropical evergreen forest in Southwest China.

We calculated water use efficiency (WUE) using measures of gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) from five years of continuous eddy covariance measurements (2009-2013) obtained over a primary subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest in southwestern China. Annual mean WUE exhibited a decreasing trend from 2009 to 2013, varying from ~2.28 to 2.

Physiological Responses of Two Epiphytic Bryophytes to Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulfur Addition in a Subtropical Montane Cloud Forest.

Atmospheric depositions pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms are not well understood, and few studies have considered the combined effects and interactions of multiple pollutants. This in situ study explored the physiological responses of two epiphytic bryophytes to combined addition of nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur.

Isotopic Composition of Atmospheric Mercury in China: New Evidence for Sources and Transformation Processes in Air and in Vegetation.

The isotopic composition of atmospheric total gaseous mercury (TGM) and particle-bound mercury (PBM) and mercury (Hg) in litterfall samples have been determined at urban/industrialized and rural sites distributed over mainland China for identifying Hg sources and transformation processes. TGM and PBM near anthropogenic emission sources display negative δ(202)Hg and near-zero Δ(199)Hg in contrast to relatively positive δ(202)Hg and negative Δ(199)Hg observed in remote regions, suggesting that different sources and atmospheric processes force the mass-dependent fractionation (MDF) and mass-independent fractionation (MIF) in the air samples. Both MDF and MIF occur during the uptake of atmospheric Hg by plants, resulting in negative δ(202)Hg and Δ(199)Hg observed in litter-bound Hg.

Heterotrophic respiration does not acclimate to continuous warming in a subtropical forest.

As heterotrophic respiration (R(H)) has great potential to increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations, it is important to understand warming effects on R(H) for a better prediction of carbon-climate feedbacks. However, it remains unclear how R(H) responds to warming in subtropical forests. Here, we carried out trenching alone and trenching with warming treatments to test the climate warming effect on R(H) in a subtropical forest in southwestern China.

Hydrothermal Fabrication of WO₃ Hierarchical Architectures: Structure, Growth and Response.

Recently hierarchical architectures, consisting of two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures, are of great interest for potential applications in energy and environmental. Here, novel rose-like WO₃ hierarchical architectures were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. The as-prepared WO₃ hierarchical architectures were in fact assembled by numerous nanosheets with an average thickness of ~30 nm.

Water relations and gas exchange of fan bryophytes and their adaptations to microhabitats in an Asian subtropical montane cloud forest.

Fan life forms are bryophytes with shoots rising from vertical substratum that branch repeatedly in the horizontal plane to form flattened photosynthetic surfaces, which are well suited for intercepting water from moving air. However, detailed water relations, gas exchange characteristics of fan bryophytes and their adaptations to particular microhabitats remain poorly understood. In this study, we measured and analyzed microclimatic data, as well as water release curves, pressure-volume relationships and photosynthetic water and light response curves for three common fan bryophytes in an Asian subtropical montane cloud forest (SMCF).

Investigation of temperature and aridity at different elevations of Mt. Ailao, SW China.

Our current understanding is that plant species distribution in the subtropical mountain forests of Southwest China is controlled mainly by inadequate warmth. Due to abundant annual precipitation, aridity has been less considered in this context, yet rainfall here is highly seasonal, and the magnitude of drought severity at different elevations has not been examined due to limited access to higher elevations in this area.In this study, short-term micrometeorological variables were measured at 2,480 m and 2,680 m, where different forest types occur.