Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 12, 2025

Assessment of Labile Organic Carbon in Soil Using Sequential Fumigation Incubation Procedures
Published on: October 29, 2016
Loss of soil microbial residue carbon by converting a tropical forest to tea plantation
Suhui Ma1, Biao Zhu1, Guoping Chen1
1Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Land-use change can lead to profound changes in the storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the tropics. Soil microbial residues make up the majority of persistent SOC pools, yet the impact of land-use change on microbial residue C accumulation in the tropics is not well understood. Here, we investigated how the conversion of tropical primary montane rainforest to secondary forest and the conversions of secondary forest to Prunus salicina plantation and tea plantation, influence the accumulation of soil microbial residue C (indicated by amino sugars). Our results showed that the secondary forest had a higher SOC than that of the primary forest (+63%), while they had no difference in microbial residue C concentration, indicating a relatively slow microbial-derived C accrual during secondary succession. Moreover, the P. salicina plantation and tea plantation had lower SOC than the secondary forest (-53% and -57%, respectively). A decrease in fungal biomass (-51%) resulted in less fungal and total residue C concentrations in the tea plantation than in the secondary forest (-38% and -35%, respectively), indicating microbial-derived C loss following the forest conversion. The change in microbial residue C depended on litter standing crop rather than soil nutrient and root biomass. Litter standing crop affected microbial residue C concentration by regulating fungal biomass and hydrolytic enzyme activities. Taken together, our results highlight that litter-microbe interactions drive microbial residue C accumulation following forest conversions in the tropics.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
The Carbon Cycle
C4 Pathway and CAM
C4 Pathway
The C4 pathway is used by plants such as...
Bioremediation
Trophic Efficiency
The Soil Ecosystem
Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss

