Lu-Jun Li

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology

Microbial biomass plays a critical role in soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization. However, the effects of microbial biomass size on SOC mineralization are poorly understood. We investigated how the priming effect (PE) of plant residue inputs on native SOC mineralization responds to changes in microbial biomass size and nitrogen (N) availability...

Microbial biomass (MB) plays a critical role in residue decomposition and soil organic matter (SOM) turnover. We investigated the effects of the initial size of soil MB pool and nitrogen (N) availability on the incorporation of ryegrass residue carbon (C) into microbial biomass C (MBC) and dissolved organic C (DOC). Soils from a row crop system (CS...

In addition to soil organic carbon (SOC), soil inorganic carbon (SIC) is also an important reservoir of carbon (C) in arid and semiarid areas, and often contributes a large amount to total soil C. Despite carbonate soils distributed in some regions of northeast China, few data are available on SIC stock, especially in deep soils, resulting underest...

The effect of mineral fertilizer practices on increasing crop yield has been well studied, but few studies have examined the influence of different long‐term subtractive fertilization designs on decomposition of crop residues or influence of soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. To assess the combined effects of the long‐term (27 yrs) subtractive ferti...

Purpose Legume crops are advocated for integration into crop rotation systems, and cereal-based rotations with the presence of legumes have a substantial effect on improving soil fertility and health. It is not yet clear whether the frequency of legume inclusion in crop rotation systems influences soil biochemical properties and soil organic matter...

The release of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) from soil organic matter by extracellular enzymes is essential for biogeochemical cycles and is sensitive to field management practices and climate change. However, the way in which straw return and warming shift microbial C and nutrient (N and P) limitation is not fully understood. We con...

Continuous cropping of soybean leads to soil environment deterioration and soil-borne disease exacerbation, which in turn limits the sustainability of agricultural production. Chitin amendments are considered promising methods for alleviating soybean continuous cropping obstacles; however, the underlying mechanisms of soil sickness reduction remain...

Purpose: The legume crops are advocated to integrate in crop rotation systems, and legume included in cereal-based rotations have a substantial effect on improving soil fertility and health. It is not yet clear whether the frequency of legumes included in crop rotation system influences soil biochemical properties and soil organic matter (SOM) mine...

Microbiomes are important for crop performance. However, a deeper knowledge of crop-associated microbial communities is needed to harness beneficial host-microbe interactions. Here, by assessing the assembly and functions of maize microbiomes across soil types, climate zones, and genotypes, we found that the stem xylem selectively recruits highly c...

Soil total nitrogen is the major indicator of soil fertility and quality in agricultural ecosystems. However, few comparative studies investigated the spatial patterns of soil total nitrogen density (STND) in deep soils of different land uses and soil types. Therefore, our study aimed to identify the influence of environmental factors on spatial va...

Long-term continuous cropping of soybean can generate the development of disease-suppressive soils. However, whether the changes in microbial communities, especially for archaea, contribute to controlling soil sickness and improving crop yields remains poorly understood. Here, real-time PCR and high-throughput sequencing were employed to investigat...

In arable soils, the topsoil and subsoil are commonly mixed in the operation of deep tillage. It is not yet clear whether the influence of crop straw on soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization of the mixed soil (from the topsoil and subsoil) is different from solely that of the topsoil or subsoil. We conducted a 120‐day incubation experiment with...

Revealing the composition and role of rare and abundant microbial groups is crucial to understand ecosystem processes and function. In 2018, we characterized soil bacterial community, abundant (AMPs) and rare microbial populations (RMPs) with mineral fertilizer and mineral fertilizer combined with straw return under continuous maize (Zea mays L.) a...

Aims Traditional tillage represents a serious threat to the stability of soil ecosystems. Understanding the response mechanisms of soil microbial community assembly to different tillage practices is a major topic of soil ecological research. Methods Here, we investigated the bacterial community structures and assembly in bulk and rhizosphere soils...

Crop straw return is being widely applied as a sustainable soil management practice to improve soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in intensive agricultural ecosystems. However, the dynamics and chemical composition of SOC under long-term straw return are not fully understood. Based on a 15-year field experiment with soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill...

In order to comprehensively reflect and analyze the research progress of soil aggregates in China, the advanced retrieval function of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) was employed to retrieve related topics from 1990 to 2019. Bibliometric analysis was conducted using the metrology visual analysis function of CNKI. According to the num...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) content and its ¹³C natural abundance along soil profile are sensitive to the changes of land use since these changes alter external carbon (C) inputs and belowground C turnover processes. A study was conducted to investigate how the conversion of cropland to forest, grassland or bare land (no vegetation) affect the distri...

It is important to understand the effects of exogenous carbon (C) additions on the mineralization of native soil C in agricultural soils under changing global temperatures. The slowly mineralizable C pools represent the major component of soil carbon. Once the labile fraction of soil C is depleted through mineralization, additions of exogenous labi...

A comprehensive understanding of the effects of tillage practices on soil microbial communities is fundamental to a better understanding of their roles in maintaining or improving the stability of agroecosystems. However, little is known regarding soil microbial co-occurrence patterns and their function in ecosystems shaped by long-term tillage pra...

Denitrifiers controlled the key‐step on global nitrogen cycle, however, little knowledge had been focused on their biogeography and associated underlying mechanisms. Here, based on high‐throughput sequencing (HTS), we investigated the nirS and nirK‐type community diversity, biogeography, assembly mechanisms and taxa interactions with 26 soil sample...

Aims Conventional tillage is a serious threat to the stability of soil ecosystems. Understanding the response mechanisms of soil microbial community assemblies to anthropogenic activities is a major topic of ecological research. Methods Here, we investigated the bacterial community structures and assemblies in bulk and rhizosphere soils of soybean...

Alfalfa is a perennial herbaceous forage legume that is remarkably and negatively affected by monocropping. However, the contribution of the changes in bacterial communities to soil sickness in alfalfa have not been elucidated. Therefore, we investigated bacterial community structures in response to monocropped alfalfa along the chronosequence. Con...

Soil microbes play an important role in nutrient cycling in agricultural soils and can be influenced by tillage. Conservation tillage aims to reduce energy inputs and conserve soil and water by decreasing disturbance of soil and returning a portion of crop residue. The response of the soil microbial community to conservation tillage is complex and...

The effects of continuous cropping and crop rotation of soybean on soil fungal communities have been intensively studied, but we know little about the network structure and interactions among the fungal species impacted by these two cropping systems in the bulk and rhizosphere soils. In this study, through the Molecular Ecological Network Analysis...

Experiments were conducted to study the adsorption kinetics and isothermal adsorption mechanism of nitrification inhibitor nitrapyrin onto the black soil of northeastern China. The nitrapyrin adsorption kinetics of the black soil were fitted with a quasi-second-order kinetics equation before and after organic matter removal (R² ≥ 0.8320, p < .05)....

Soil aggregates are the basic units of soil structure, and their composition and carbon (C) stability directly affect soil fertility. As cementing agents, humic substances play an important role in the formation and stability of soil aggregates. Long-term fertilization not only changes the structure of humic acid (HA), but also affects the content...

Deeper soil horizons might provide an opportunity to enhance C sequestration because soil organic matter (SOM) at depth is assumed to be stable. However, it is unknown whether the stable composition of organic carbon in subsoils changes with the length of cropping time and the type of soil. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects...

Temperature sensitivity of organic carbon (C) mineralization is affected by C inputs, but predicting the magnitude of the response remains a challenge. We investigated how temperature and exogenous C inputs affected the apparent organic C mineralization in soils with a range of soil organic C (SOC) contents. Soils with 2.9, 4.0, and 6.8% SOC conten...

BACKGROUND Soil organic carbon (SOC) is fundamental for mitigating climate change as well as improving soil fertility. Databases of SOC obtained from soil surveys in 1981 and 2011 were used to assess SOC change (0–20 cm) in croplands of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Three counties (Lindian, Hailun and Baoqing) were selected as typical c...

BACKGROUND Soil organic carbon (SOC) is fundamental for mitigating climate change as well as improving soil fertility. Databases of SOC obtained from soil surveys in 1981 and 2011 were used to assess SOC change (0–20 cm) in croplands of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Three counties (Lindian, Hailun and Baoqing) were selected as typical c...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is fundamental for mitigating climate change as well as improving soil fertility. Databases of SOC obtained from soil surveys in 1981 and 2011 were used to assess SOC change (0-20 cm) in croplands of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Three counties (Lindian, Hailun, and Baoqing) were selected as typical croplands r...

Taking soils in a long-term experimental field over 29 years with different land uses types, including arable land, bare land, grassland and larch forest land as test materials, the distribution and storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the profile (0-200 cm) in typical black soil (Mollisol) region of China were investigated. The results showed t...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is important to soil nutrient status in agroecosystems. Some of the soils of the Northeast of China, noted for their high SOC content, suffer from serious soil erosion to the point of having the parent material exposed or near the surface, which has raised concerns for food security. The Chinese Mollisols were derived from...

Purpose While the influence of integrated fertility management systems on yield and N cycling in Mollisols is documented, its effect on soil C sequestration remains to be determined. We examined the response of organic C pools and crop yields to 21 years’ organic amendments applied at relatively low rates in a high-C Mollisol to optimize win–win ma...

Long-term continuous cropping of soybean (Glycine max), spring wheat (Triticum aesativum) and maize (Zea mays) is widely practiced by local farmers in northeast China. A field experiment (started in 1991) was used to investigate the differences in soil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions under continuous cropping of the three major crops and to evaluate...

The deposition of Mg-rich dust from magnesite calcination can lead to serious soil contamination. As an efficient remediation method, phytoremediation is often used to remove contaminants from the environment. However, no information is available on phytoremediation of Mg-contaminated soils. In this study, we determined the Mg concentrations in abo...

Aims Grassland conversion to cropland (GCC) may result in loss of a large amount of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, the assessment of such loss of SOC still involves large uncertainty due to shallow sampling depth, soil bulk density estimation and spatial heterogeneity. Our objectives were to quantify changes in SOC, soil total nitrogen (STN) a...

Changes in Topsoil Organic Carbon of Croplands in Heilongjiang Province of China, 1981-2011 Abstract: Maintenance of soil organic carbon (SOC) is critical not only to soil fertility, but also to environmental sustainability in agroecosystems. Thus, the sequestration of carbon into soils has been of increasing concern, and serves as one of the st...

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the influences of long-term applications of organic amendments and chemical fertilizers on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Mollisols in northeast China and to relate soil N2O fluxes to soil moisture and temperature. A closed-chamber method was used to determine soil N2O flux during the maize growing s...

A field experiment was conducted to examine the influences of long-term applications of maize straw and organic manure on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a cultivated Mollisol in northeast China and to evaluate the responses of soil CO2 fluxes to temperature and moisture. Soil CO2 flux was measured using closed chamber and gas chromatograph tec...

Predicting carbon (C) mineralization of crop residues returned to soils is important for forecasting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and soil nitrogen (N) availability. In this study, a laboratory incubation experiment was conducted to investigate C mineralization of residues of soybean (Glycine max), maize (Zea mays), and their...

A field experiment was conducted to examine the influences of 5-year no tillage without straw retaining on soil organic carbon (SOC) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Mollisols, and to relate soil CO2 effluxes to variations in soil temperature and moisture. A closed-chamber method was used to determine CO2 efflux during the maize growing seas...

Nutrient resorption is considered to be an im-portant indicator of plant nutrient conservation strategies (Aerts and Chapin 2000). Nutrient resorption is an important process during leaf senescence, which can contribute significantly to whole plant nutrient retention (Carrera et al. 2003). Through nutrient resorption, nutrients are stored by plants...

We measured soil chemical and microbial properties at a depth of 0–20 cm among mine tailings, abandoned mined land, contaminated cropland, and uncontaminated cropland around a magnesite mine near Haicheng City, Liaoning Province, China. The objective was to clarify the impact of Mg on the soils. We found that soluble Mg2+ concentration and pH were...

Soil aggregate stability is strongly affected by land use probably due to variation of organic carbon in different sized aggregates. The objectives of this study were to evaluate changes in soil aggregation under different land uses and to elucidate the role of organic C and polysaccharides on aggregate stability of Mollisols. Soil samples were obt...

To investigate soil quality changes as related to the shift from conventional tillage (CT) to no-tillage (NT) practices, a field experiment study was conducted to monitor selected microbial properties of a Mollisol in Northeast China. The experiment was established in 2007 including two tillage systems: CT and NT. Results showed that 4-year NT prac...

Labile fractions of soil organic matter (SOM) respond rapidly to land management practices and can be used as a sensitive indicator of changes in SOM. However, there is little information about the effect of agroforestry practices on labile SOM fractions in semiarid regions of China. In order to test the effects of land use change from monocropping...

Fresh tree root decomposition induced by tillage is an important source of soil nutrients in agroforestry systems. Here we examined the effects of tree species, root size and soil N enrichment on fresh root decomposition under laboratory conditions. Fresh roots with two diameters (<2 and 2–5mm) of Populus euramericana cv. ‘N3016’ (poplar) and Pinus...

To examine whether the critical leaf N/P ratios (of 14, 16) are valid to test nutrient limitation in the context of semi-arid sandy grasslands, an experiment was conducted on a Keerqin sandy grassland in North-east China to investigate the responses of plant biomass and nutrient concentrations to fertilization. Plant biomass production and leaf nut...

a b s t r a c t It was hypothesized that litter with higher N concentration would decompose faster than that with lower N concentration and that increased soil nutrient availability would stimulate litter decomposition. To examine the interspecific differences in decomposition rate of leaf litter in relation with differences in litter chemistry and...

Nitrogen (N)-fixing species have a function to enrich N in soil. Mixing N-fixing shrub species into poplar stands can be assumed as a measure to increase productivity while improving soil fertility. To verify this assumption and to understand the temporal influences of N-fixing shrub species mixed into poplar plantations on soil fertility, we inves...

Surface (0–15cm) soil samples were collected from a semi-arid, sandy grassland in Keerqin Sandy Lands, Northeast China to study changes in soil microbial and chemical properties after five consecutive years of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) additions. Nitrogen and P additions and their interactions negligibly affected soil organic carbon and total...

Afforestation of marginal agricultural land has been considered to be an effective measure to sequester atmospheric CO2. In this study, we adopted the volume- and mass-based methods to investigate the changes in soil organic C and total N stocks in 100cm depth following afforestation of marginal agricultural land using a chronosequence of poplar (P...

We compared the effects of young plantations (4 to 5 years old) of two trees (Ulmus pumila and Robinia pseudoacacia (a legume)) and a shrub (Ziziphus jujube var. spinosa) on soil carbon and nutrient concentration, microbial biomass and their accretion during early phase of plantation establishment on mine spoils around a magnesite mine in Northeast...

To clarify responses of plant and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools in grassland ecosystem to N addition, a field experiment was performed in a grassland in Keerqin Sandy Lands, Northeast China. We investigated vegetation composition and C and N pools of plant and soil (0–30cm) after five consecutive years of N addition at a rate of 20gNm−2y−1...

Tree leaf litter and crop residues (fine roots and straw) of the two main crops (maize and peanut) collected from temperate poplar-based agroforestry systems in Liaoning Province, China, were used in a laboratory decomposition experiment. The objectives were to assess the decomposition dynamics of individual plant residues of varying quality and to...

Taking 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20 years old poplar (Populus euramericana cv. "N 3016") shelterbelts in Jianping County, Liaoning Province as test objects, the effects of establishing shelterbelts on the farmland soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, and microbial activity were evaluated. After the establishment of shelterbelts, the concentrations o...

Species diversity and productivity are the important indices of the structure and functioning of ecosystems. With Keerqin sandy grassland as test object, this paper studied its species composition, species diversity, and productivity under effects of different level nitrogen (N) addition. Nitrogen addition altered the species composition and the do...