Phenolic compounds weaken the impact of drought on soil enzyme activity in global wetlands.

Soil enzymes play a central role in carbon and nutrient cycling, and their activities can be affected by drought-induced oxygen exposure. However, a systematic global estimate of enzyme sensitivity to drought in wetlands is still lacking. Through a meta-analysis of 55 studies comprising 761 paired observations, this study found that phosphorus-related enzyme activity increased by 38% as result of drought in wetlands, while the majority of other soil enzyme activities remained stable. The expansion of vascular plants under long-term drought significantly promoted the accumulation of phenolic compounds. Using a 2-week incubation experiment with phenol supplementation, we found that phosphorus-related enzyme could tolerate higher biotoxicity of phenolic compounds than other enzymes. Moreover, a long-term (35 years) drainage experiment in a northern peatland in China confirmed that the increased phenolic concentration in surface layer resulting from a shift in vegetation composition inhibited the increase in enzyme activities caused by rising oxygen availability, except for phosphorus-related enzyme. Overall, these results demonstrate the complex and resilient nature of wetland ecosystems, with soil enzymes showing a high degree of adaptation to drought conditions. These new insights could help evaluate the impact of drought on future wetland ecosystem services and provide a theoretical foundation for the remediation of degraded wetlands.

Integrating major agricultural practices into the TRIPLEX-GHG model v2.0 for simulating global cropland nitrous oxide emissions: Development, sensitivity analysis and site evaluation.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from croplands are one of the most important greenhouse gas sources while the estimation of which remains large uncertainties globally. To simulate N2O emissions from global croplands, the process-based TRIPLEX-GHG model v2.0 was improved by coupling the major agricultural activities. Sensitivity experiment was used to measure the impact of the integrated processes to modeled N2O emission found chemical N fertilization have the highest relative effect sizes. While the coefficient of the NO3- consumption rate for denitrification (COEdNO3), controlling the first step of the denitrification process was identified to be the most sensitive parameter based on sensitivity analysis of model parameters. The model performed well when simulating the magnitude of the daily N2O emissions for 39 calibration sites and the continental mean of the parameters were used to producing reasonable estimations for the means of the measured daily N2O fluxes (R2 = 0.87, slope = 1.07) and emission factors (EFs, R2 = 0.70, slope = 0.72) during the experiment periods. The model reliability was further confirmed by model validation. General trend of modeled daily N2O emissions were reasonably consistent with the observations of selected validated sites. In addition, high correlations between the results of modeled and observed mean N2O emissions (R2 = 0.86, slope = 0.82) and EFs (R2 = 0.66, slope = 0.83) from 68 validation sites were obtained. Further improvement on more detailed estimations for the variation of the environmental factors, management effects as well as accurate model input model driving data are required to reduce the uncertainties of model simulations. Consequently, our simulation results demonstrate that the TRIPLEX-GHG model v2.0 can reliably estimate N2O emissions from various croplands at the global scale, which contributes to closing global N2O budget and sustainable development of agriculture.

The Effects of Drought and Re-Watering on Non-Structural Carbohydrates of Pinus tabulaeformis Seedlings.

Intense and frequent drought events strongly affect plant survival. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) are important "buffers" to maintain plant functions under drought conditions. We conducted a drought manipulation experiment using three-year-old Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. seedlings. The seedlings were first treated under different drought intensities (i.e., no irrigation, severe, and moderate) for 50 days, and then they were re-watered for 25 days to explore the dynamics of NSCs in the leaves, twigs, stems, and roots. The results showed that the no irrigation and severe drought treatments significantly reduced photosynthetic rate by 93.9% and 32.6% for 30 days, respectively, leading to the depletion of the starch storage for hydraulic repair, osmotic adjustment, and plant metabolism. The seedlings under moderate drought condition also exhibited starch storage consumption in leaves and twigs. After re-watering, the reduced photosynthetic rate recovered to the control level within five days in the severe drought group but showed no sign of recovery in the no irrigation group. The seedlings under the severe and moderate drought conditions tended to invest newly fixed C to starch storage and hydraulic repair instead of growth due to the "drought legacy effect". Our findings suggest the depletion and recovery of starch storage are important strategies for P. tabulaeformis seedlings, and they may play key roles in plant resistance and resilience under environmental stress.

Contrasting Soil Bacterial Community, Diversity, and Function in Two Forests in China.

Bacteria are the highest abundant microorganisms in the soil. To investigate bacteria community structures, diversity, and functions, contrasting them in four different seasons all the year round with/within two different forest type soils of China. We analyzed soil bacterial community based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing via Illumina HiSeq platform at a temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest (Baotianman, BTM) and a tropical rainforest (Jianfengling, JFL). We obtained 51,137 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and classified them into 44 phyla and 556 known genera, 18.2% of which had a relative abundance >1%. The composition in each phylum was similar between the two forest sites. Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the most abundant phyla in the soil samples between the two forest sites. The Shannon index did not significantly differ among the four seasons at BTM or JFL and was higher at BTM than JFL in each season. The bacteria community at both BTM and JFL showed two significant (P < 0.05) predicted functions related to carbon cycle (anoxygenic photoautotrophy sulfur oxidizing and anoxygenic photoautotrophy) and three significant (P < 0.05) predicted functions related to nitrogen cycle (nitrous denitrificaton, nitrite denitrification, and nitrous oxide denitrification). We provide the basis on how changes in bacterial community composition and diversity leading to differences in carbon and nitrogen cycles at the two forests.