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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2023, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 770-776.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202303.012

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Effect of leaves damaged by Dendrolimus punctatus and insect frass on soil priming effect.

HUANG Xuemei1, CHEN Longchi2,5, TIAN Ning1, GUAN Xin2,5, HU Yalin3, HUANG Ke2,5, SU Xiujiang4, TAO Xiao1*   

  1. 1College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China;
    2Huitong Experimental Station of Forest Ecology, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China;
    3Forest Ecology and Stable Isotope Research Center, College of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China;
    4Hunan Baiyunshan National Nature Reserve Administration, Baojing 416500, Hunan, China;
    5Hunan Key Laboratory for Structure and Ecosystem Service of Subtropical Forest, Huitong 418300, Hunan, China
  • Received:2022-06-28 Accepted:2023-01-05 Published:2023-09-15

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Abstract: Insect herbivory in the forest canopy leads to a large amount of damaged leaves and frass input to soil, with consequence on soil carbon cycle. However, the influence of damaged leaves and frass from insect canopy herbivory on the soil priming effect is unclear. We examined the effects of leaf litter, leaf damage caused by Dendrolimus punctatus, and insect frass on soil priming effect by using the 13C natural abundance technique. The results showed that the addition of leaf litter, damaged leaves, and frass significantly increased native soil organic carbon mineralization, producing a positive priming effect. Moreover, significant differences were observed among treatments. The accumulative priming effect induced by frass was the largest, followed by damaged leaves, and that of leaf litter was the smallest. The priming effect was positively correlated with total P, condensed tannin, total phenolic content, and the ratio of condensed tannin to P (condensed tannin/P), and negatively correlated with C/N, lignin/N, C/P, and lignin/P in the early stage of incubation. There was a significant negative correlation between the priming effect and lignin content in the later stage of incubation. Our results indicated that damaged leaves and frass increased the magnitude of positive priming effect, which was influenced by different factors at different incubation stages. Our results would strengthen the understanding in the effects of insect herbivory on soil carbon cycling in forests, and improve the accuracy of the assessment of its effects on forest carbon sink.

Key words: 13C natural abundance, organic carbon decomposition, priming effect, Pinus massoniana, insect frass