Resilience of microbial respiration, respiratory quotient and stable isotope characteristics to soil hydrocarbon addition

On the basis of CO2 evolution rate, O2 uptake rate, and 13C isotopic signature of respired CO2, the metabolic response to the addition of 13C labelled n-hexadecane and palmitic acid each with supplementary nitrogen was studied for two topsoils, one under continuous agricultural management and the other under beech forest. The CO2 evolution rate was immediately stimulated in the agricultural soil and the respiratory quotient (RQ) decreased from 0.8 to 0.4 mol CO2 evolution rate per mol O2 uptake rate, which was below the theoretically expected value of 0.65 and 0.70 for the degradation of n-hexadecane and palmitic acid, respectively. The microbial response was delayed in the forest soil, but developed better than in the agricultural soil throughout the subsequent 2–4 weeks. Consequently, the respiration rate returned earlier to the initial level for the beech forest soil and the δ13C of respired CO2 and RQ approached values before hydrocarbon addition. Based on the link among respiration rates, RQ and 13C–CO2 value, the added oil-analogue compounds induced a more rapid response in the agricultural soil and were degraded more completely in the forest soil. We concluded that the resilience, which we defined here as the capacity of the soil microbiota to buffer perturbance and to reorganise in response to change resulting in a more desirable system, was higher in our forest soil than for the agricultural soil.

► Oil-analogue degradation in soil was monitored on the basis of carbon dioxide evolution and carbon isotopic characteristics.
► Carbon dioxide and oxygen uptake provide complementary information.
► Forest soil was more efficient than agricultural soils.