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Rhizosphere and bulk soil enzyme activities in a Nothotsuga longibracteata forest in the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve, Fujian Province, China

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Abstract

The rhizosphere, distinct from bulk soil, is defined as the volume of soil around living roots and influenced by root activities. We investigated protease, invertase, cellulase, urease, and acid phosphatase activities in rhizosphere and bulk soils of six Nothotsuga longibracteata forest communities within Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve, including N. longibracteata + either Phyllostachys pubescens, Schima superba, Rhododendron simiarum, Cunninghamia lanceolata, or Cyclobalanopsis glauca, and N. longibracteata pure forest. Rhizosphere soils possessed higher protease, invertase, cellulase, urease, and acid phosphatase activities than bulk soils. The highest invertase, urease, and acid phosphatase activities were observed in rhizosphere samples of N. longibracteata + S. superba. Protease was highest in the N. longibracteata + R. simiarum rhizosphere, while cellulase was highest in the pure N. longibracteata forest rhizosphere. All samples exhibited obvious rhizosphere effects on enzyme activities with a significant linear correlation between acid phosphatase and cellulase activities (p < 0.05) in rhizosphere soils and between protease and acid phosphatase activities (p < 0.05) in bulk soils. A principal component analysis, correlating 13 soil chemical properties indices relevant to enzyme activities, showed that protease, invertase, acid phosphatase, total N, and cellulase were the most important variables impacting rhizosphere soil quality.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve at Yong′an, Sanming City, Fujian Province for its generous support of this project. We also thank Sumin Li, Yunqiang Shen, Dongliang Hou, Liyan Jian and Junyong Chen for field assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, People’s Republic of China

    Shihong Xiao, Huiming You, Weibin You, Zhesen Hu & Dongjin He

  2. Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve, Yong’an, 366032, People’s Republic of China

    Jinshan Liu, Changtang Cai & Jianqin Wu

  3. College of Computer and Information Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, People’s Republic of China

    Zhirong Ji & Shihua Zhan

  4. College of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, People’s Republic of China

    Zhongrui Zhang

Authors
  1. Shihong Xiao
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  2. Huiming You
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  3. Weibin You
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  4. Jinshan Liu
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  5. Changtang Cai
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  7. Zhirong Ji
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  8. Shihua Zhan
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  9. Zhesen Hu
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  11. Dongjin He
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongjin He.

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Project funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31370624); the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20103515110005); the National Science Foundation of Fujian, China (Grant No. 2011J01071); Young Teacher Project of Fujian Province (Grant No. JA13118; JK2013016); and the National College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (Grant No. 111zc3009).

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Corresponding editor: Chai Ruihai

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Xiao, S., You, H., You, W. et al. Rhizosphere and bulk soil enzyme activities in a Nothotsuga longibracteata forest in the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve, Fujian Province, China. J. For. Res. 28, 521–528 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-016-0334-y

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