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Plastic fragments are widely found in the soil profile of terrestrial ecosystems, forming plastic footprint and posing increasing threat to soil functionality and carbon (C) footprint. It is unclear how plastic footprint affects C cycling, and in particularly permanent C sequestration. Integrated field observations (including 13 C labelling) were made using polyethylene and polylactic acid plastic fragments (low-, medium- and high-concentrations as intensifying footprint) landfilling in soil, to track C flow along soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC). The result indicated that increased plastic fragments substantially reduced photosynthetic C assimilation (p < 0.05), regardless of fragment degradability. Besides reducing C sink strength, relative intensity of C emission increased significantly, displaying elevated C source. Moreover, root C fixation declined significantly from 21.95 to 19.2 mg m -2 , and simultaneously root length density, root weight density, specific root length and root diameter and surface area were clearly reduced. Similar trends were observed in the two types of plastic fragments (p > 0.05). Particularly, soil aggregate stability was significantly lowered as affected by plastic fragments, which accelerated the decomposition rate of newly sequestered C (p < 0.05). More importantly, net C rhizodeposition declined averagely from 39.77 to 29.41 mg m -2 , which directly led to significant decline of permanent C sequestration in soil. Therefore, increasing plastic footprint considerably worsened C footprint regardless of polythene and biodegradable fragments. The findings unveiled the serious effects of plastic residues on permanent C sequestration across SPAC, implying that current C assessment methods clearly overlook plastic footprint and their global impact effects., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: The hydrological cycle is an important way of transportation and reallocation of reactive nitrogen (N) in forest ecosystems. However, under a high level of atmospheric N deposition, the N distribution and cycling through water flows in forest ecosystems especially in bamboo ecosystems are not well understood., Methodology/principal Findings: In order to investigate N fluxes through water flows in a Pleioblastus amarus bamboo forest, event rainfall/snowfall (precipitation, PP), throughfall (TF), stemflow (SF), surface runoff (SR), forest floor leachate (FFL), soil water at the depth of 40 cm (SW1) and 100 cm (SW2) were collected and measured through the whole year of 2009. Nitrogen distribution in different pools in this ecosystem was also measured. Mean N pools in vegetation and soil (0-1 m) were 351.7 and 7752.8 kg ha(-1). Open field nitrogen deposition at the study site was 113.8 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1), which was one of the highest in the world. N-NH4(+), N-NO3(-) and dissolved organic N (DON) accounted for 54%, 22% and 24% of total wet N deposition. Net canopy accumulated of N occurred with N-NO3(-) and DON but not N-NH4(+). The flux of total dissolved N (TDN) to the forest floor was greater than that in open field precipitation by 17.7 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1), due to capture of dry and cloudwater deposition net of canopy uptake. There were significant negative exponential relationships between monthly water flow depths and monthly mean TDN concentrations in PP, TF, SR, FFL and SW1., Conclusions/significance: The open field nitrogen deposition through precipitation is very high over the world, which is the main way of reactive N input in this bamboo ecosystem. The water exchange and N consume mainly occurred in the litter floor layer and topsoil layer, where most of fine roots of bamboo distributed.

From January 2008 to January 2009, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of simulated nitrogen (N) deposition (0, 5, 15, and 30 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)) on the soil enzyme activities in a Betula luminifera plantation in Rainy Area of West China. As compared with the control (0 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)), simulated N deposition stimulated the activities of soil hydrolases (beta-fructofuranosidase, cellulase, acid phosphatase, and urease) significantly, but depressed the activities of soil oxidases (polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase). These results suggested that the increased exogenous inorganic N could stimulate soil microbial activity and increase the demands of both B. luminifera and soil microbes for C and P, whereas the depress of soil polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities under N addition could inhibit the degradation of litter and promote its accumulation in soil, leading to the increase of soil C storage in the B. luminifera plantation ecosystem.

To understand the characteristics of soil respiration components and their temperature sensitivity in a Pleioblastus amarus plantation in the Rainy Area of West China, a one-year periodic monitoring was conducted in a fixed plot of the plantation from February 2010 to January 2011. In the plantation, the mean annual soil respiration rate was 1.13 micromol x m(-2) x s(-1), and the soil respiration presented a clear seasonal pattern, with the maximum rate in mid-summer and the minimum rate in late winter. The contribution rates of the respiration of litter layer, root-free soil, and root to the total soil respiration of the plantation accounted for 30.9%, 20.8% and 48.3%, respectively, and the respiration of the components had a similar seasonal pattern to the total soil respiration, being related to temperature and litterfall. The annual CO2 efflux from the total soil respiration, litter layer CO2 release, root-free soil CO2 release, and root respiration was 4.27, 1.32, 0.87 and 2.08 Mg C x hm(-2) x a(-1), respectively. The total soil respiration and its components had significant positive linear correlations with litterfall, and significant positive exponential correlations with air temperature and the soil temperature at depth 10 cm. The Q10 values of total soil respiration, litter layer CO2 release, root-free soil CO2 release, and root respiration calculated based on the soil temperature were 2.90, 2.28, 3.09 and 3.19, respectively, suggesting that the temperature sensitivity of litter layer CO2 release was significantly lower than that of the total soil respiration and of its other components.

Fine root is critical in the belowground carbon (C) cycling in forest ecosystem. Aimed to understand the effects of nitrogen (N) deposition on the fine root characteristics and soil respiration in Pleioblastus amarus plantation, a two-year field experiment was conducted in the Rainy Area of West China. Four treatments with different levels of N deposition were installed, i. e., CK (0 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)), low N (5 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)), medium N (15 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)), and high N (30 g N x m(-2) x a(-1)). There were great differences in the biomass and element contents of <1 mm and 1-2 mm fine roots among the treatments. Comparing with < 1 mm fine roots, 1-2 mm fine roots had higher contents of lignin, P, and Mg, but lower contents of cellulose and Ca. Nitrogen deposition increased the biomass of < 2mm fine roots significantly, with the values being (533 +/- 89) g x m(-2) in CK, and (630 +/- 140), (632 +/- 168), and (820 +/- 161) g x m(-2) in treatments low N, medium N, and high N, respectively. The N, K, and Mg contents of <2 mm fine roots also had an obvious increase under N deposition. The annual soil respiration rate in treatments CK, low N, medium N, and high N was (5.85 +/- 0.43), (6.48 +/- 0.71), (6.84 +/- 0.57), and (7.62 +/- 0.55) t C x hm(-2) x a(-1), respectively, indicating that N deposition had obvious promotion effects on soil respiration. There were significant linear relationships between the annual soil respiration rate and the biomass and N content of <2 mm fine roots. N deposition increased the fine root biomass and promoted the root metabolism, and stimulated the rhizospheric soil respiration rate via promoting microbial activities.