This study aimed to reveal the process and mechanism of ant colonization affecting soil nitrogen cycling in the neighbour forest of Napahai wetlands.We compared the differences of soil nitrogen components(i.e.,total,alkali-hydrolyzed,nitrate,ammonium,microbial nitrogen)and their allocation(alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen/total ni-trogen,nitrate nitrogen/total nitrogen,ammonium nitrogen/total nitrogen,microbial biomass nitrogen/total nitrogen)in ant nests and the reference soils in the Abies fabri-Picea asperata community.We also analyzed the effects of ant-induced changes in soil physicochemical environments on accumulation and allocation of nitrogen components.The results indicated that ant colonization significantly affected soil nitrogen accumulation and allocation(P<0.05).The ant nesting increased total nitrogen(2.2 times),nitrate nitrogen(3.5 times),ammonium nitrogen(1.4 times),alka-li-hydrolyzed nitrogen(4.2 times),and microbial biomass nitrogen(1.8 times)compared with reference soils.Fur-thermore,the levels of alkali-hydrolyzed nitrogen/total nitrogen,nitrate nitrogen/total nitrogen,ammonium nitrogen/total nitrogen,microbial biomass nitrogen/total nitrogen in nest soils increased by 1.88,1.47,1.38,1.58 times compared with reference soils,respectively.We observed a significant effect of treatment,soil depth,and their inter-actions on accumulation and allocation of soil nitrogen components(P<0.05).Regression analysis revealed that am-monium and nitrate nitrogen explained 87.29%and 80.84%of the variance in total nitrogen,respectively.Mantel and structural equation indicated that soil porosity,total phosphorus,pH,and were the major drivers for nitrogen ac-cumulation,while soil organic matter,available phosphorus,and available phosphorus were the drivers for nitrogen allocation.This study found that ant colonization regulated nitrogen accumulation and allocation primarily through al-tering soil environmental factors such as soil porosity,acid-alkalinity,carbon,phosphorus and potassium nutrients.Our results may contribute to the understanding of faunal mechanism in regulating nitrogen accumulation and alloca-tion in neighbour forests of alpine wetlands.
ant colonizationnitrogen componentsnitrogen accumulationnitrogen allocationneighbour for-estsNapahai
维普
万方数据
