Effects of Plant Litter Type and Additions of Nitrogen and Phosphorus on Bacterial Community-Level Physiological Profiles in a Brown Forest Soil

Abstract

Effects of plant litter type (larch needle-leaves, mixed broad-leaves, and sasa green leaves) and nutrient addition (nitrogen and phosphorus) on bacterial community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) of a forest soil were examined using BIOLOG EcoPlates^TM. Both the litter and nutrient additions significantly increased color development in most of the wells in the BIOLOG microplates, with the effect of the latter being especially great for soils amended with plant leaves low in nutrients. Nitrogen addition to soils decreased the color development of some nitrogenous substrates. Litter type had a dominant effect on the CLPPs. The addition of nitrogen also strongly affected the CLPPs.