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Microbial activity in contrasting conditions of soil C and N availability in a tropical dry forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Noé Manuel Montaño ,
Ana Lidia Sandoval-Pérez ,
Felipe García-Oliva ,
John Larsen  and
Mayra E. Gavito
Noé Manuel Montaño
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Apartado Postal 27-3 Sta. María de Guido, 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México
Ana Lidia Sandoval-Pérez
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Apartado Postal 27-3 Sta. María de Guido, 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México
Felipe García-Oliva*
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Apartado Postal 27-3 Sta. María de Guido, 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México
John Larsen
Affiliation:
University of Aarhus, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Integrated Pest Management, Research Centre Flakkebjerg, DK-4200 Slagelse, Denmark
Mayra E. Gavito
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Apartado Postal 27-3 Sta. María de Guido, 58090, Morelia, Michoacán, México
*
1Corresponding author. Email: fgarcia@oikos.unam.mx
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Abstract:

We studied the relationships between soil nutrient availability and microbial biomass and activity of two contrasting soil conditions in a tropical deciduous forest in western Mexico. Hilltops have higher pH, water, dissolved organic C, and ammonium concentrations than hillslopes. Our main hypothesis was that soil microbial biomass, microbial activity and bacterium species richness would be higher in soils with high availability of nutrients. Fifteen soil cores, 0–5 cm depth, were taken in the dry, early rainy and rainy season, from each of the ten replicate plots in hilltop and hillslope positions located on three contiguous small watersheds. We measured moisture, C, N and P availability, potential C mineralization, net nitrification, microbial biomass and culturable heterotrophic and nitrifying bacteria in composite samples from each plot. Microbial biomass, species richness of culturable heterotrophic bacteria and C mineralization were significantly higher on hilltops than on hillslopes. Net nitrification was, in contrast, significantly higher on hillslopes than on hilltops and counts of culturable nitrifying bacteria were also significantly higher in the rainy-season samples. Hilltops and hillslopes had low similarity in composition of culturable heterotrophic bacterial species, particularly during the rainy season. The results suggested that C and N availability and seasonal changes in soil moisture are important controlling factors for some soil culturable-bacterial species, which may affect both C mineralization and nitrification in these tropical deciduous forest soils.

Keywords

C mineralizationculturable bacteriadissolved organic carbonmicrobial biomassnitrificationtropical deciduous forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , July 2009 , pp. 401 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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