title: Prolonged acid rain facilitates soil organic carbon accumulation in a mature forest in Southern China.
abstract: With the continuing increase in anthropogenic activities, acid rain remains a serious environmental threat, especially in the fast developing areas such as southern China. To detect how prolonged deposition of acid rain would influence soil organic carbon accumulation in mature subtropical forests, we conducted a field experiment with simulated acid rain (SAR) treatments in a monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest at Dinghushan National Nature Reserve in southern China. Four levels of SAR treatments were set by irrigating plants with water of different pH values: CK (the control, local lake water, pH ≈ 4.5), T1 (water pH=4.0), T2 (water pH=3.5), and T3 (water pH=3.0). Results showed reduced pH measurements in the topsoil exposed to simulated acid rains due to soil acidification. Soil respiration, soil microbial biomass and litter decomposition rates were significantly decreased by the SAR treatments. As a result, T3 treatment significantly increased the total organic carbon by 24.5% in the topsoil compared to the control. Furthermore, surface soil became more stable as more recalcitrant organic matter was generated under the SAR treatments. Our results suggest that prolonged acid rain exposure may have the potential to facilitate soil organic carbon accumulation in the subtropical forest in southern China.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510650, China.
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209, USA.
authors.forename: Dafeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209, USA.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Qingyan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.
authors.forename: Juxiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.
authors.forename: Guowei
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China.
authors.forename: Guoyi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. Electronic address: zhangdeq@scib.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Deqiang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015258:Acid Rain; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D065928:Forests; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D015258:Acid Rain; D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon
keywords: Acid rain; Litter decomposition; Microbial activity; Organic carbon accumulation; Solid-state CP/MAS (13)C-NMR spectroscopy