Articles | Volume 12, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-817-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-817-2015
Research article
 | 
10 Feb 2015
Research article |  | 10 Feb 2015

Microbial respiration per unit microbial biomass depends on litter layer carbon-to-nitrogen ratio

M. Spohn

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Cited articles

Anderson, T. H. and Domsch, K. H.: The metabolic quotient for CO2 (qCO2) as a specific activity parameter to assess the effects of environmental conditions, such as pH, on the microbial biomass of forest soils, Soil Biol. Biochem., 25, 393–395, 1993.
Anderson, T. H. and Domsch, K. H.: Soil microbial biomass: the eco-physiological approach, Soil Biol. Biochem., 42, 2039–2043, 2010.
Bastida, F., Zsolnay, A., Hernández, T., and García, C.: Past, present and future of soil quality indices: a biological perspective, Geoderma, 147, 159–171, 2008.
Berg, B. and Matzner, E.: Effect of N deposition on decomposition of plant litter and soil organic matter in forest systems, Environ. Rev., 5, 1–25, 1997.
Berg, B. and McClaugherty, C.: Plant litter: decomposition, humus formation, carbon sequestration 1st Edn. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 2003.
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Soil microbial respiration is a central process in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. In this study, I tested the effect of the carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio of soil litter layers on microbial respiration in absolute terms and per unit microbial biomass C. For this purpose, a global dataset on microbial respiration per unit microbial biomass C – termed the metabolic quotient (qCO2) – was compiled form literature data. It was found that the qCO2 in the soil litter layers was positively correlated
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