Past aridity’s effect on carbon mineralization potentials in grassland soils

Abstract. Mineralization potential is a key property for assessing carbon substrate’s degradability and mineralization in biogeochemical models and studies. While mineralization potential is widely examined under controlled conditions, whether and how it is influenced by the past aridity of sample’s origins remain poorly constrained, which is important for an accurate assessment and prediction of future CO2 emissions. Here we collect top- and subsoils from different aridity regimes along a 2100-km grassland transect of northern China and conduct a 91-day decomposition experiment with and without the addition of 13C-labeled leaf litter under controlled temperature and moisture. CO2 release from both soil organic carbon (SOC) and fresh litter is measured along with microbial biomass, extracellular enzyme activities, soil and mineral properties. We find that neither microbial carbon use efficiency nor biomass-normalized metabolic quotient (qCO2) is related to the aridity of sampling sites. However, both fresh litter and SOC display the highest mineralization potentials in soils originating from the driest site. Using pathway analysis, we demonstrate that past aridity’s effect is mediated by differential mechanisms for substrates of varied complexity. While microbial biomass plays a more important role in the decomposition of fresh litter, enzyme-catalyzed extracellular reactions predominantly govern the mineralization of SOC. Our findings provide novel evidence on the mechanisms underlying past aridity’s effect on the mineralization potentials of organic matter with different qualities, which has significant implications for assessing and modelling decomposition in different aridity regimes.