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Holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) rhizosphere affects limestone-derived soil under a multi-centennial forest

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Abstract

Background and Aims

The activity of roots and associated microorganisms plays a key-role in soil formation and evolution, but we lack of knowledge on the quality and extent of the “rhizosphere effect” in the different soil horizons. The aim of this study was to assess the interactions between rhizosphere processes and genetic horizons in a forest (Quercus ilex L.) soil developed from limestone. Specifically, we tested (a) if the rhizosphere effect was significant in all the horizons of the soil profiles, and (b) if the intensity of the rhizosphere effect was associated to structure, composition and activity of the microbial community.

Methods

Bulk and rhizosphere soils were characterized by physical, mineralogical, chemical and biological (microbial activity and community structure) analyses.

Results

Throughout the soil profile, the rhizosphere processes affected properties like particle-size distribution and soil structure, mineralogy, pH, and organic C and total P content. Conversely, amounts of exchangeable Ca, Mg and K, iron oxides, available P, and total nitrogen showed no significant change. As for the microbial community, its structure and metabolic activity differed between rhizosphere and bulk only in the core of the solum (2Bwb and 3Bwb horizons).

Conclusions

The main processes controlling the intensity of the rhizosphere effect on the soil horizons were root activity, soil faunal perturbation and slope dynamics. While root activity impacted the whole soil profile, although to a lesser extent at depth, the influence of fauna and slope was confined atop the profile. It follows that long-term changes due to root activity and associated microbial community were more strongly expressed in the core of the solum, not at the surface, of this limestone-derived soil.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted with Angelo Leccese for field and lab assistance, Luca Calamai (CISM–UNIFI) for his help in the PLFA analysis, and George Gobran for inspiration and helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 72, 06121, Perugia, Italy

    A. Agnelli, L. Massaccesi & M. De Feudis

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari ed Ambientali, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    S. Cocco & G. Corti

  3. Département de Géographie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    F. Courchesne

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  1. A. Agnelli
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  2. L. Massaccesi
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  3. M. De Feudis
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  4. S. Cocco
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  5. F. Courchesne
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  6. G. Corti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Agnelli.

Ethics declarations

This research benefited of funds from the Majella National Park (Call n. 1, 14.02.2006).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Responsible Editor: Eric Paterson.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 8

Table 8 Morphological description of the soil under Holm oak (Quercus ilex L.), Eremo delle Carceri forest, Mount Subasio (Assisi, Italy). For symbols see legend
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Table 9

Table 9 F-values from two-way ANOVA for the analyzed soil properties. The asterisks indicate the significance levels: * = p < 0.05; ** = p < 0.01; *** = p < 0.001.
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Agnelli, A., Massaccesi, L., De Feudis, M. et al. Holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) rhizosphere affects limestone-derived soil under a multi-centennial forest. Plant Soil 400, 297–314 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2732-x

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