干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

In the northern semiarid and arid part of Mexico, mesquite (Prosopis juliflora (SW.) DC.), huisache (Acacia farnesiana (L.) Willd.) and catclaw (Mimosa biuncifera Benth.), N-2-fixing trees or shrubs, dominate the landscape. It is unknown, however, how much the leaves of those shrubs contribute to dynamics of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in soil. We investigated this by adding leaves of each species to soil sampled under the canopy of mesquite, huisache, and catclaw and outside their canopy while monitoring production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and dynamics of inorganic N (ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NOD) in an aerobic incubation. The (hemi)cellulose and N content of the catclaw leaves was lower and the lignin and polyphenol content was larger than in the mesquite and huisache leaves. If we considered no priming effect, then 41% of the C added with catclaw leaves, 47% with huisache leaves and 49% with mesquite leaves mineralized within 42 days. The addition of