Data from: Soil microbial processes and resource limitation in karst and non-karst forests

1. Soil microorganisms play a key role in soil biogeochemical cycles, but
their growth and activities are often limited by resource availability.
Understanding soil processes that are driven by microorganisms and
resource limitation of microbes will help to elucidate controls on soil
fertility and improve the ability to predict the responses of an ecosystem
to global changes. As a widespread ecosystem type, karst ecosystem
develops from limestone or dolomite with unique soil, however, karst
ecosystems remains poorly understood regarding their soil microbial
processes and microbial resource limitation. 2. Here, ecoenzymatic
stoichiometry was used as an indicator of microbial resource limitation,
and to model major microbial processes (i.e., decomposition of soil
organic carbon and microbial respiration) in a karst and a non-karst
forest. 3. Results showed that the modeled decomposition and respiration
rates were significantly higher in the karst forest than in the non-karst
forest. In addition, results of ecoenzymatic stoichiometry showed that the
karst forest was more carbon-limited than the non-karst forest. In
contrast, the karst forest was likely saturated with nitrogen, but the
non-karst forest was limited by nitrogen. Both the karst and non-karst
forests were limited by phosphorus, but phosphorus deficiency was more
evident in the non-karst forest than in the karst forest. 4. These
findings highlight the specific profiles of karst ecosystems, and they
suggest that the responses of karst ecosystems to global changes should be
very different compared to other ecosystems.