[Soil properties and microbial respiration activities of riparian forest wetland in the north of permafrost zone, the Great Hing'an Mountains, Northeast China].

Riparian wetlands in permafrost regions are critical regions for hydrological, ecological, and biochemical processes. We studied the soils of riparian and transition wetlands and analyzed physicochemical properties, stoichiometry, and microbial respiration activities (microbial biomass carbon, basal respiration, microbial entropy, and metabolic entropy) of the humus layer and diffe-rent soil layers. The results showed that the main differentiation of soil physical and chemical pro-perties in riparian forest wetlands was below 20 cm. Compared to the wetlands of transition zone, total carbon content, total nitrogen content, C/P and N/P decreased significantly with soil depth in riparian forest wetlands. These changes in soil stoichiometry were mainly caused by soil nitrogen content. Such a result meant that the transferring of nitrogen was relatively fast and that there was nitrogen limitation. The main differentiation of Na, Mg, K and Ca in soil occurred in the 30 cm layer of the transition zone and the 20 cm layer of the riparian forest wetlands. The correlations between soil Mg content and total C, total N, total P contents were significant. It meant that the soil Mg was an important element to riparian wetlands in the Great Hing'an Mountains. Microbial respiration activities of the humus layer in riparian forest wetlands and transition zone were higher than those in the other soil layers, indicating that the content of labile carbon fractions was high. The correlations between soil microbial respiration activities and soil properties, stoichiometry, nutrient elements were different in riparian wetland and transition zone. Soil total nitrogen contents were significantly correlated with soil microbial respiration activities in riparian wetland, indicating that soil microbial respiration activities were limited by nitrogen in riparian wetland of the Great Hing'an Mountains.