The nitrogen isotope of soil is of emerging significance as an indicator of climatic change and biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen in nature systems. In this paper, the nitrogen content and isotopic composition of modern ecosystems from arid and semiarid Loess Plateau in northwestern China, including plant roots and surface soil, were determined to investigate trends in δ15N variation of plant roots and soil along a precipitation and temperature gradient in northwestern China under the East Asian Monsoon climate condition. The δ15N values of surface soil from the study area vary from ?1.2‰ to 5.8‰, but from -5.1‰ to 1.9‰ in the plant roots. Our results indicate that (1) although the isotopic compositions of both plant roots and surface soil change with a similar trend along the climate gradient, the apparent nitrogen difference between plant roots and soil existed, with -δ15N values ranging from 0.3‰ to 7.2‰ with average of 4.1‰; and (2) mean annual precipitation (MAP) is the dominant factor for isotopic composition of plant-soil nitrogen in the Loess Plateau, and the δ15N values are less correlated with MAT; we suggest that nitrogen isotopic composition of soil is a potential tracer for environmental changes.
LIU WeiGuo1,2 & WANG Zheng1,3 1 State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China
Ratios of stable nitrogen isotopes in organic matter derived from plants and preserved in soil are potential tracers for nitrogen cycles in natural ecosystems and valuable for evaluation of climate change. However, the rela-tionship between nitrogen isotopic compositions in surface soil and in plant litter during the decomposition process from plant litter to soil organic matter is not well understood. By using nitrogen isotopic analysis of soil parti-cle-sized fractions, nitrogen isotope discrimination between plant litter and surface soil organic matter in various modern ecosystems in northwestern China was conducted. The results of our study indicate that: (1) in general, the nitrogen isotopic compositions of particle-sized fractions from surface soil are different, and δ15N values increase from plant litter to fine soil organic matter; (2) the δ15N values in the soil particle-sized fractions become larger with increasing relative humidity and temperature, and the largest variation in the δ15N values is from -5.9‰ to -0.3‰; and (3) under a controlled climate, significant nitrogen isotope differences in δ15N values (Δδ15Nplant-soil) between plant litter and bulk soil organic matter were observed, with the values of 1.52 to 4.75 at various sites. Our results suggested that comparisons of Δδ15N values between bulk soil and the particle-sized fractions of soil could reveal the effect of humidity on transferring process of nitrogen from plant to soil in arid and semi-arid ecosystems.
LIU WeiguoWANG ZhoufengWANG ZhengFENG XiahongZHANG Pu
