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Soil Biology & Biochemistry Note

ATMOSPHERIC NITRATE DEPOSITION AND ENHANCED DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON LEACHING

TEST OF A POTENTIAL MECHANISM

^a School of Natural Resources & Environment, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115
^b Current address: Earth, Ecological and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606-3390
^c Dep. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048
^d School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI 49931-1295

^* Corresponding author (Jared.DeForest{at}utoledo.edu)

Atmospheric NO₃^– deposition has the potential to disrupt litter decomposition in temperate forests by suppressing enzymes responsible for lignin degradation. A reduction in phenol oxidase activity could potentially trigger an increase in soluble phenolic compounds, which in turn are known to decrease the activity of cellulolytic enzymes like ß-glucosidase. Our study investigated whether the inhibition of lignin degradation by experimental NO₃^– deposition could increase soluble phenolics in soil, suppress ß-glucosidase activity, and potentially explain a greater export of dissolved organic C (DOC) from northern hardwood ecosystems. We found no evidence that the suppression of phenol oxidase by NO₃^– additions increased soluble phenolics in mineral soil, nor did we find a strong inverse relationship between soluble phenolics and ß-glucosidase activity. It appears that reductions in mineral soil lignolytic activity induced by experimental deposition are not responsible for greater DOC export from soil.