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The stability of soil aggregates is critical for maintaining soil structures and is positively correlated with soil resident organic and inorganic colloids. Forest conversion and soil depth affects the formation of soil aggregates; however, the detailed mechanisms involved in their stabilization have not been well investigated. Therefore, to explore the main factors that influence the stability of soil aggregates for different forest types and soil depths, twelve soil samples were collected from four types of forests (native, mixed, Chinese fir, and bamboo forest) and three soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm) in subtropical forests. The results revealed that the distributions and mean weight diameters (MWDs) of large macroaggregates in the bamboo forest were significantly lower than those in the other forest types at all soil depths (p < 0.05). Organic and inorganic colloids (organically-complexed Fe oxide and fulvic acid) in the soil directly impacted the stability of soil aggregates, while soil properties (e.g., pH and bulk density) indirectly promoted soil aggregate stability through the modification of colloids. In both native and bamboo forests, organic colloids contributed most to the stability of soil aggregates, reaching 80.31% and 61.37%, respectively. The contributions of organic colloids were found to decrease with soil depth, which was primarily due to changes in the organic matter caused by the decomposition of litter. Elucidating and promoting the specific contributions of organic and inorganic colloids on the stability of soil aggregates will be increasingly important for the optimal management of different forest types.

The methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway provides the universal basic blocks for the biosynthesis of terpenoids and plays a critical role in the growth and development of higher plants.

Microbial weathering processes can significantly promote soil properties and enhance rock to soil ratio. Some soil-inhabiting bacteria exhibit efficient rock-dissolution abilities by releasing organic acids and other chemical elements from the silicate rocks. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved during bacterial rock-dissolution is still limited. In this study, we performed silicate rock-dissolution experiments on a novel Pseudomonas sp. NLX-4 strain isolated from an over-exploited mining site. The results revealed that Pseudomonas sp. NLX-4 strain efficiently accelerates the dissolution of silicate rocks by secreting amino acids, exopolysaccharides, and organic acids. Through employing genome and transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), we identified the major regulatory genes. Specifically, fifteen differentially expressed genes (DEGs) encoding for siderophore transport, EPS and amino acids synthesis, organic acids metabolism, and bacterial resistance to adverse environmental conditions were highly up-regulated in silicate rock cultures of NLX-4 strain. Our study proposes a novel bacterial based approach for improving the ecological restoration of over-exploited rock mining-sites.

Background China has been increasingly subject to significant acid rain, which has negative impacts on forest ecosystems. Recently, the concentrations of NO3− in acid rain have increased in conjunction with the rapid rise of nitrogen deposition, which makes it difficult to precisely quantify the impacts of acid rain on forest ecosystems. Methods For this study, mesocosm experiments employed a random block design, comprised of ten treatments involving 120 discrete plots (0.6 m × 2.0 m). The decomposition of fine roots and dynamics of nutrient loss were evaluated under the stress of three acid rain analogues (e.g., sulfuric (SO42−/NO3− 5:1), nitric (1:5), and mixed (1:1)). Furthermore, the influences of soil properties (e.g., soil pH, soil total carbon, nitrogen, C/N ratio, available phosphorus, available potassium, and enzyme activity) on the decomposition of fine roots were analyzed. Results The soil pH and decomposition rate of fine root litter decreased when exposed to simulated acid rain with lower pH levels and higher NO3− concentrations. The activities of soil enzymes were significantly reduced when subjected to acid rain with higher acidity. The activities of soil urease were more sensitive to the effects of the SO42−/NO3− (S/N) ratio of acid rain than other soil enzyme activities over four decomposition time periods. Furthermore, the acid rain pH significantly influenced the total carbon (TC) of fine roots during decomposition. However, the S/N ratio of acid rain had significant impacts on the total nitrogen (TN). In addition, the pH and S/N ratio of the acid rain had greater impacts on the metal elements (K, Ca, and Al) of fine roots than did TC, TN, and total phosphorus. Structural equation modeling results revealed that the acid rain pH had a stronger indirect impact (0.757) on the decomposition rate of fine roots (via altered soil pH and enzyme activities) than direct effects. However, the indirect effects of the acid rain S/N ratio (0.265) on the fine root decomposition rate through changes in soil urease activities and the content of litter elements were lower than the pH of acid rain. Conclusions Our results suggested that the acid rain S/N ratio exacerbates the inhibitory effects of acid rain pH on the decomposition of fine root litter.

Forest conversion may affect the soil microbial community through impacts on soil properties. However, our understanding of the effects on the soil bacterial community remains limited. The objective of this study was to understand the impacts of forest conversion of native broad-leaved species on soil bacterial structure and diversity. The phylogeny structure and diversity of the soil bacterial communities were compared among four forest types. We found that the soil total nitrogen (TN) and C:N ratios were significantly different between a mixed forest and other forest types. The native forest and mixed forest contained a higher relative abundance of Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Acidimicrobiia compared with the Chinese fir and Bamboo forests, but more unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were found in the Chinese fir and Bamboo forests. Soil bacteria in bamboo forest and Chinese fir forest showing a higher diversity but a lower total sequencing number than native forest and mixed forest. Among the soil properties, pH was an important variable that contributing to both soil bacterial communities and soil alpha diversities. Our work suggests that after a long-tern forest conversion, both land-use history and vegetation species strongly influence soil bacteria communities, and soil pH is a main factor that influences soil bacterial structure.

[Background] The key to integrated watershed management is to take simultaneous account of environmental, economic, and social development goals, hence, a multi-objective decision making approach is required. However, our understanding and application of multi-objective decision making in watershed management remains limited. [Objective] The objective of this study was to develop a multi-objective decision making system (MDMS) that could simultaneously handle multiple problems and objectives in a small watershed based on the relationships among land, water and economy. [Methods] The MDMS was coupled with the watershed hydrological model and economic benefit evaluation model to comprehensively simulate the watershed operational process, and established a multi-objective function to minimize sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus outputs, while maximizing the economic benefits for integrated watershed management. The MDMS also utilized an improved meta-heuristic algorithm to optimize the agricultural land use structure of the small watershed to obtain the best integrated management plan at the small watershed scale. [Results] We found that the MDMS achieved seamless connections between automatic updating, analysis, and the optimization of land use structures in the iterative process, and successfully obtained an optimal scheme from a large number of agricultural land use structure alternatives, with particularly high time efficiencies. [Conclusions] Overall, the MDMS effectively controlled the negative impacts of crop planting on the environment, and simultaneously considered the economic benefits, which might assist managers in arriving at efficient scientific decisions toward the integrated management of small agricultural watersheds.

Shear strength is an important mechanical property of soil, as its mechanical function plays critical roles in reducing land degradation and preventing soil erosion. However, shear strength may be affected by vegetation type through changes in the soil and root patterns. To understand the influences of different types of vegetation on shear strength, the soil shear indices of three typical vegetation types (broad-leaved forest, coniferous broad-leaved mixed forest, and grassland) were studied and evaluated at the Fengyang Mountain Nature Reserve, China. We employed a direct shear apparatus to measure the soil shear resistance index. We quantified the soil porosity, moisture content, and composition of particle size to determine the properties of the soil, and a root scanner was used to quantify the root index. The results revealed that there were significant differences in shear resistance indices at the stand level. Between the three vegetation types, the internal friction angle of the broad-leaved forest was the largest and the cohesion was the smallest. The soil moisture content and porosity of the coniferous broad-leaved mixed forest were higher than those of the broad-leaved forest, and the root volume density (RVD/cm3) of the broad-leaved forest was higher than that of the coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest and grassland. Structural equation modeling results show that the soil particle size and root characteristics indirectly impacted the soil water content by affecting porosity, which finally affected shear strength. In general, there were significant differences in soil properties and plant root indices between the different stands, which had an impact on soil shear strength.

Anthropogenic overexploitation poses significant threats to the ecosystems that surround mining sites, which also have tremendous negative impacts on human health and society safety. The technological capacity of the ecological restoration of mine sites is imminent, however, it remains a challenge to sustain the green restorative effects of ecological reconstruction. As a promising and environmentally friendly method, the use of microbial technologies to improve existing ecological restoration strategies have shown to be effective. Nonetheless, research into the mechanisms and influences of rock-solubilizing microbial inoculums on plant growth is negligible and the lack of this knowledge inhibits the broader application of this technology. We compared the effects of rock-solubilizing microbial inoculums on two plant species. The results revealed that rock-solubilizing microbial inoculums significantly increased the number of nodules and the total nodule volume of Robinia pseudoacacia L. but not of Lespedeza bicolor Turcz. The reason of the opposite reactions is possibly because the growth of R. pseudoacacia was significantly correlated with nodule formation, whereas L. bicolor’s growth index was more closely related to soil characteristics and if soil nitrogen content was sufficient to support its growth. Further, we found that soil sucrase activity contributed the most to the height of R. pseudoacacia, and the total volume of root nodules contributed most to its ground diameter and leaf area. Differently, we found a high contribution of total soil carbon to seedling height and ground diameter of L. bicolor, and the soil phosphatase activity contributed the most to the L. bicolor’ s leaf area. Our work suggests that the addition of rock-solubilizing microbial inoculums can enhance the supply capacity of soil nutrients and the ability of plants to take up nutrients for the promotion of plant growth. Altogether, our study provides technical support for the practical application of rock-solubilizing microbes on bare rock in the future.

Soil aggregates are the basic structural components of soil, which are important factors that can predict erosion resistance. However, few researchers have investigated the effects of forest conversion on the stability of soil aggregates, particularly in subtropical forests. In this study, soils from various depths (0 to 30 cm) were collected from four forest types (transformed from broadleaved forests (BMF) to combined coniferous broadleaved (CBMF), Chinese fir (FF), and bamboo forests (BF)) to determine the impacts of forest conversion on the physical and chemical properties of soil, water-stable soil aggregates, and aggregate-associated humic substances. The results showed that forest conversion had no effects on the soil’s physical properties, or the humic substances in bulk soil, but had significant effects on soil aggregates. In addition, the conversion of broadleaved forest to Chinese fir forest increased the soil stability, and to bamboo forest, decreased the soil stability. Finally, the soil’s physicochemical properties were closely related to aggregate-associated humic substances. In summary, specific forest management measures should be applied to strengthen the positive impacts and reduce the negative impacts associated with forest conversion.

The influence of acid rain on forest trees includes direct effects on foliage as well as indirect soil-mediated effects that cause a reduction in fine-root growth. In addition, the concentration of NO3- in acid rain increases with the rapidly growing of nitrogen deposition. In this study, we investigated the impact of simulated acid rain with different SO42-/NO3- (S/N) ratios, which were 5:1 (S), 1:1 (SN) and 1:5 (N), on fine-root growth from March 2015 to February 2016. Results showed that fine roots were more sensitive to the effects of acid rain than soils in the short-term. Both soil pH and fine root biomass (FRB) significantly decreased as acid rain pH decreased, and also decreased with the percentage of NO3- increased in acid rain. Acid rain pH significantly influenced soil total carbon and available potassium in summer. Higher acidity level (pH=2.5), especially of the N treatments, had the strongest inhibitory impact on soil microbial activity after summer. The structural equation modelling results showed that acid rain S/N ratio and pH had stronger direct effects on FRB than indirect effects via changed soil and fine root properties. Fine-root element contents and antioxidant enzymes activities were significantly affected by acid rain S/N ratio and pH during most seasons. Fine-root Al ion content, Ca/Al, Mg/Al ratios and catalase activity were used as better indicators than soil parameters for evaluating the effects of different acid rain S/N ratios and pH on forests. Our results suggest that the ratio of SO42- to NO3- in acid rain is an important factor which could affect fine-root growth in subtropical forests of China.

In this study, we investigated the effect of forest types changes (from coniferous and broadleaf mixed forest (CBMF) to plantation forests of bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens forest, MBF) and hickory (Carya cathayensis forest, CHF)) combined with intensive management on soil organic carbon (SOC) and microbial community structure, using the 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA). The results indicated that soil organic carbon significantly decreased by 30.7 and 28.5% in MBF and CHF, respectively. The aromatic C and aromaticity also significantly decreased in MBF and CHF (P 0.05). Significant changes of the soil microbial community were found after the forest type changed from CBMF to MBF and CHF. Total soil microbial PLFAs, soil bacteria PLFAs, fungus PLFAs, actinobacteria PLFAs, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi PLFAs and protozoan PLFAs ranked as follows: CBMF > CHF > MBF (P CHF (0.66) > CBMF (0.49) (P CHF > MBF, P

Dendrobium officinale is a kind of crop and precious herbal that is widely distributed in China. We applied transcriptomics to investigate the flavonoids and their biosynthesis-related genes from different tissues. Total flavonoid was determined in three different tissues. In this study, nine cDNA libraries were generated from Dendrobium officinale. A total of 530 million (70.73%) of the high-quality reads were successfully mapped to the reference genome of Dendrobium officinale and nine libraries were combined and assembled into 24,927 non-redundant genes. We mapped all of these genes to reference pathways in the KEGG database to identify polysaccharide and secondary metabolites pathways in which the genes may be involved. We outlined the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids and identified putative genes, which provide understanding of the biosynthesis and regulation of Dendrobium officinale flavonoids at the molecular level. We identified five CHS genes from Dendrobium officinale and characterized the CHS gene family. The flavonoid-related key enzyme genes were identified, and their expression patterns in different tissues were further analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR. These data on flavonoid genes obtained in this work will be useful in understanding the molecular mechanisms of different tissues in Dendrobium officinale.

Background Dendrobium moniliforme (Linnaeus) Swartz is a well-known plant used in traditional Chinese medicine due to bioactive constituents. Polysaccharides are the main medicinal ingredients, yet no studies have been published on polysaccharide biosynthesis in D. moniliforme. To comprehensively investigate the polysaccharide at the transcription level, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing for the first time to produce a comprehensive transcriptome of D. moniliforme. Results In our study, a database of 562,580 unigenes (average length = 1115.67 bases) was generated by performing transcriptome sequencing. Based on the gene annotation of the transcriptome, we identified 1204 carbohydrate-active related unigenes against CAZy database, including 417 glycosyltransferase genes (GTs), 780 glycoside hydrolases (GHs), 19 carbohydrate esterases (CEs), 75 carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs), and 44 polysaccharide lyases (PLs). In the cellulose synthase family, 21 differential expression genes (DEGs) related to polysaccharide were identified. Subsequently, the tissue-specific expression patterns of the genes involved in polysaccharide pathway were investigated, which provide understanding of the biosynthesis and regulation of DMP at the molecular level. The two key enzyme genes (Susy and SPS) involved in the polysaccharide pathway were identified, and their expression patterns in different tissues were further analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR. Conclusions We determined the content of polysaccharides from Dendrobium moniliforme under different tissues, and we obtained a large number of differential genes by transcriptome sequencing. This database provides a pool of candidate genes involved in biosynthesis of polysaccharides in D. moniliforme. Furthermore, the comprehensive analysis and characterization of the significant pathways are expected to give a better insight regarding the diversity of chemical composition, synthetic characteristics, and the regulatory mechanism which operate in this medical herb.

Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) is one of the most important soil properties that determines water flow behavior in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the Ks of forest soils is difficult to predict due to multiple interactions, such as anthropological and geomorphic processes. In this study, we examined the impacts of vegetation type on Ks and associated mechanisms. We found that Ks differed with vegetation type and soil depth, and the impact of vegetation type on Ks was dependent on soil depth. Ks did not differ among vegetation types at soil depths of 0–10 and 20–30 cm, but was significantly lower in managed forest types (mixed evergreen broad-leaved and coniferous forests, bamboo forests, and tea gardens) than native evergreen broadleaf forests at a depth of 10–20 cm. Boosted regression tree analysis indicated that total porosity, non-capillary porosity, and macro water-stable aggregates were the primary factors that influenced Ks. Our results suggested that vegetation type was a key factor that influences hydraulic properties in subtropical forest soils through the alteration of soil properties, such as porosity and macro water-stable aggregates.

Additional file 1: Figure S1: Sequence-length distribution of transcripts and unigenes assembled from Illumina. Figure S2. Venn diagram of all unigenes with annotations against five public databases. Figure S3. Functional gene ontology classification of unigenes. Figure S4. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment of DEGs.Table S1. Genes IDs and primers used in the quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) experiments.

The harm of acid rain (AR) to plants foliage is mainly manifested by changing their physiological and biochemical processes, such as chlorosis, nutrient loss, enzyme activity changes, etc., which in turn impacts plant growth. Since the types of AR in China is changing, the response of plants to different types of AR has become a research hotspot. In this research, we investigated the responses of Q. acutissima foliage to simulated AR with different SO42−/NO3−(S/N) ratios and pH through chlorophyll contents, chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics, malondialdehyde content and antioxidant enzyme activities. The results showed that the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSⅡ (Fv/Fm) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of Q. acutissima gradually decreased as the increase of NO3− concentration. With the decrease of AR pH, the inhibitory effect of simulated AR on growth rate and photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) gradually increased, and it also induced the increase of SOD and catalase (CAT) activities. Besides, pure NAR with low acidity (pH = 4.5) significantly increased basal diameter growth rate (DGR), chlorophyll content, peroxidase (POD) activity and qP, while decreased Chla/Chlb, fluorescence efficiency, non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ), malondialdehyde (MDA) content and SOD activity. Correlation analysis indicated that the growth rate, chlorophyll content and fluorescence characteristics of Q. acutissima were highly correlated with foliar antioxidant enzyme activities under simulated AR stress. Our results indicated that different types of simulated AR had discrepant influences on the foliage physiological characteristics and above-ground growth of Q. acutissima, but not always negative, which made the protection of Q. acutissima plantation more complicated.

Soil microbial communities play vital roles in nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning but these communities could be affected by land use change. To understand the impacts of land use change on soil microbial communities, we assessed the relative abundance of soil microbial communities and soil physicochemical properties following stand conversion from native broadleaf forests to mixed and bamboo forests in Feng yang Mountain Nature Reserve, China. We used phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiling analysis to determine the composition of microbial communities, quantified soil bulk density, pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations to determine soil physicochemical properties, and assessed species richness and evenness to determine vegetation structure. We found that the abundance of anaerobic bacteria was significantly higher in the bamboo forests than in broad-leaved or mixed forests, while the abundance of 16:1 ω5c was significantly lower in the mixed forests than other forests. The relative abundance of 16:1 ω5c was positively correlated with soil pH, while the abundance of anaerobic bacteria was negatively correlated with soil phosphorus concentration. Among the three different land use types, bamboo forest was characterized by significantly higher soil pH, while the broad-leaved forest had significantly higher nitrogen concentration, and mixed forest had significantly higher soil bulk density. Overall, the composition of microbial communities in native broad-leaved forest was distinct from converted forests in the relative abundance of anaerobic bacteria and 16:1 ω5c, underscoring the fact that land use change can have a profound impact on soil microbial composition.

Acid rain (AR) is a serious issue in China, particularly in the Yangtze River Delta region where the economy has undergone rapid development. Over the last few years, the composition of acid rain in the Yangtze River Delta region has gradually changed from sulfuric acid rain (SAR) to nitric acid rain (NAR) due to controls on SO2 emissions, but increased NOx emissions. These changes have made ecosystems more complex. For this study, we halted AR treatments in Quercus acutissima forest plots that had received simulated AR for one year and monitored them from the following February to November. We investigated their soil resident enzyme and microbial metabolic activities, as well as community functional diversity. The results revealed that AR treatments negatively affected both the soil microbial activity and soil microbial community functional diversity; however, both managed to recover over time, once the AR treatments were stopped. During the AR treatment and recovery periods, four main categories (carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, amino acids, and polymers) were dominantly utilized. The utilization of pyruvic acid, which was affected by the AR treatments, as well as d-mannitol and tween 80, accounted for changes in the peak values of the C substrate groups during the AR treatment recovery period. Finally, changes in the activities of soil enzymes recorded following AR recovery, were closely related to the utilization of six C substrate groups. Our results suggested that the recovery of soils following the cessation of NAR stress was more rapid than from SAR. Further, that short-term NAR could be easily treated during the transformation from SAR to NAR in the Yangtze River Delta region. These results might also enrich the basic data relating to post-AR treatments on the soil environment, while having significance toward guiding further studies on the recovery of ecosystems from AR.

Long term land-use change, such as forest conversion, has been shown to strongly affect soil pore properties. The soil pores mediate soil processes and determine how soil functions. Despite their importance for understanding biological, water, and carbon stability, the properties of soil pores following long term forest conversion remain unclear in subtropical forests. We examined soil nanoscale pores in response to conversion from native forests to plantations and addressed how bacterial and fungal communities influenced soil pore properties. We found significant changes in soil pores 40 years after the conversion from native forests to Chinese fir forests or bamboo forests. The pores in mixed forest soils were similar to those in native forests, while Chinese fir forest soils contained the most pores, followed by bamboo forest soils. Chinese fir forests also had a higher surface area and volume of both total soil pores and macropores, whereas bamboo forests had a higher volume of mesopores and larger specific surface areas of the total, macro-, and mesopores. Both soil bacteria and fungi significantly influenced soil pore properties. The relative abundance of soil bacterial phyla (Planctomycetes and Verrucomicrobia), fungal phylum (Chytridiomycota), and bacterial and fungal diversity negatively affected average pore diameter. In addition, soil fungal phylum (Basidiomycota) and the total sequencing number positively affected soil mesopore volume and the specific surface areas of both total pores and mesopores. Our study demonstrated that forest conversion drove the changes in soil pores at the nanoscale. Changes in soil microbial abundance and diversity may be one of the factors that affect soil nanoscale pores, while soil fungal compositions influence soil mesopores and soil specific surface area.

The influence of acid rain on plant growth includes direct effects on foliage as well as indirect soil-mediated effects that cause a reduction in root growth. In addition, the concentration of NO3- in acid rain increases along with the rapid growth of nitrogen deposition. In this study, we investigated the impact of simulated acid rain with different SO42-/NO3- (S/N) ratios, which were 1:0, 5:1, 1:1, 1:5 and 0:1, on Chinese fir sapling growth from March 2015 to April 2016. Results showed that Chinese fir sapling height growth rate (HGR) and basal diameter growth rate (DGR) decreased as acid rain pH decreased, and also decreased as the percentage of NO3- increased in acid rain. Acid rain pH significantly decreased the Chlorophyll a (Chla) and Chlorophyll b (Chlb) content, and Chla and Chlb contents with acid rain S/N 1:5 were significantly lower than those with S/N 1:0 at pH 2.5. The chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, maximal efficiency of Photosystem II photochemistry (Fv/Fm) and non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ), with most acid rain treatments were significantly lower than those with CK treatments. Root activities first increased and then decreased as acid rain pH decreased, when acid rain S/N ratios were 1:1, 1:5 and 0:1. Redundancy discriminant analysis (RDA) showed that the Chinese fir DGR and HGR had positive correlations with Chla, Chlb, Fv/Fm ratio, root activity, catalase and superoxide dismutase activities in roots under the stress of acid rain with different pH and S/N ratios. The structural equation modelling (SEM) results showed that acid rain NO3- concentration and pH had stronger direct effects on Chinese fir sapling HGR and DGR, and the direct effects of acid rain NO3- concentration and pH on HGR were lower than those on DGR. Our results suggest that the ratio of SO42- to NO3- in acid rain is an important factor which could affect the sustainable development of monoculture Chinese fir plantations in southern China.

The influence of acid rain on forest trees includes direct effects on foliage as well as indirect soil-mediated effects that cause a reduction in fine-root growth. In addition, the concentration of NO

Changes in the chemical composition of soil organic carbon (SOC) might strongly affect the global carbon cycle as it controls the SOC decomposition rate. Vegetation change associated with long-term land use changes is known to strongly impact the chemical composition of SOC; however, data on the impacts of vegetation change following disturbance events of short durations and succession that occur frequently in forest ecosystems via diverse management objectives on SOC chemical composition are negligible. Here we examined the impacts of vegetation changes on the chemical composition of SOC by sampling soils of native broad-leaved forests, planted mixed broad-leaved and coniferous forests and tea gardens in eastern China. We used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to quantify SOC chemical composition. We found that among all components of SOC chemical composition, alkyl carbon (C) and aryl C were more liable to change with vegetation than other SOC components. Soil pH was negatively correlated to the relative abundances of alkyl C and N-alkyl C and Shannon’s index of overstory plant species was positively correlated to the relative abundances of phenolic C and aromaticity. Our results suggest that vegetation changes following short disturbance events and succession may strongly alter SOC chemical composition in forest ecosystems.