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Purpose: To provide useful knowledges for plantation management, we assessed how the transforming of the different ecosystem types to tree plantation may affect soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) concentrations and what are the driving factors of ecosystem transformation effects. Methods: We synthesized 4262 pairwise observations collected from 366 peer-reviewed publications using meta-analysis method to assess the effects of ecosystem transformation to plantation on soil C, N, and P concentrations. Results: We found that (1) ecosystem transformation effects on soil C, N, and P concentrations significantly varied with former ecosystem types, with positive effects of transforming croplands, deserts, and grasslands to plantations on total C (TC), soil organic C (SOC), dissolved organic C (DOC), total N (TN), and/or available N (AN), but negative effects of transforming primary and secondary forests to plantations on TC, SOC, TN, AN, and/or available P (AP); (2) the concentrations of soil dissolved organic N (DON), ammonium (NH4+), and nitrate (NO3–) were not affected by ecosystem transformation regardless of the former ecosystem types; and (3) ecosystem transformation effects were impacted by a variety of moderator variables, with climate, mycorrhizal association, stand age, and soil moisture and pH the most important ones. Conclusion: Transforming croplands, deserts, and grasslands to plantations will increase soil C, N, and/or P concentrations, but transforming primary and secondary forests to plantations had opposite effects. Our results help to better understand ecosystem transformation effects on soil C and nutrient concentrations, and will be useful for guiding afforestation and sustainable plantation managements under global environment change scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tree plantations (thereafter plantations) is considered to be one of the most common land use changes that may have significant effects on soil microbial biomass, but the broader patterns and underlying drivers remain unclear. Here, we quantified the effects of transforming shrublands, secondary forests, primary forests, grasslands, deserts, and croplands to plantations on the concentrations of soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), microbial biomass phosphorus (MBP) and their ratios (i.e., MBC: MBN, MBC:MNP and MBN:MBP) based on 2107 paired observations from 107 studies using meta-analysis across China. We found that (1) transforming grasslands into plantations significantly increased MBC, MBN, and MBP concentrations by 81.1, 75.3, and 65.4 %, respectively, while transforming primary forests to plantations significantly decreased soil MBC, MBN, and MBP concentrations by −29.2 -34.7, and − 50.6 %, respectively; (2) ecosystem transformation effects were seldom affected by plantation type, mycorrhizal association, plantation year, or soil depth; and (3) the impacts of climate, species richness, and soil properties on ecosystem transformation effects depended on former ecosystem type. Overall, our results clearly showed how ecosystem transformation affected soil MBC, MBN, MBP, and MBC:MBN, MBC:MBP, and MBN:MBP ratios, which plays a crucial role in nutrient cycling in ecosystems and evaluate sustainability of forest management. [Display omitted] • Ecosystem transformation effects on MBC, MBN, and MBP depended on former ecosystem type. • Ecosystem transformation did not affect soil microbial biomass C:N:P ratios. • Plantation type, mycorrhizal association, or soil depth did not impact ecosystem transformation effects. • Impacts of other moderator variables on ecosystem transformation effects depended on former ecosystem type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understory vegetation plays a crucial role in mediating the natural development of forest ecosystems. The removal of understory vegetation, as a common forest management practice, may have a significant impact on soil properties. However, a global perspective on how understory removal might affect soil biogeochemical properties is still lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we performed a meta-analysis with 2059 observations collected from 71 peer reviewed publications to evaluate the effects of understory vegetation removal on soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and microbial biomass. We found that (1) removal of the understory significantly increased soil nitrates (NO 3 −) concentration by 6.5 %, but decreased the stocks of C and N, the concentrations of N, available K (AK) and microbial biomass C (MBC), and fine root biomass by 19.4, 15.1, 7.9, 19.9, 13.5 and 32.2%, respectively; (2) mycorrhizal association significantly mediated understory removal effects on soil organic C (SOC) and dissolved organic C (DOC) concentrations, and soil pH, while canopy type had a significant impact on the effects of understory removal on soil K, AK, NO 3 −, MBC concentrations, C:N ratio, and soil pH; (3) soil depth had a negative impact on the effects of understory removal on SOC, AK, ammonium nitrogen (NH 4 +) concentrations, and soil moisture; and (4) mycorrhizal association, soil depth, slope, forest stand age, elevation, and MAT were the most important moderator variables. Our results suggest that the removal of understory vegetation generally have negative effects on soil biogeochemical properties, and that managing understory vegetation is important for promoting the healthy development of forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]