Moso bamboo ( Phyllostachys edulis) is an economically important plant that is often cultivated for its delicious shoots and versatile culms 10 and as an important biomass resource across southern China 11. These negative effects are often paid less attention while the overabundant species is economically valuable. Some native bamboo species became overabundant in their natural distribution range because of the reproduction traits, impacting seriously original forest structure and dynamics 9, potentially affecting ecosystem functioning and processes (such as C and N cycles). Little quantitative information is available on the influence of native species encroachment or overabundance on soil C and N stocks in the local natural ecosystem. These works have shown that these species altered greatly soil C and N pools in the grasslands and savanna ecosystems, and forest or shrublands. Most previous studies about the impacts of plant encroachment on soil C and N pools focused on the woody plant species 4, 5, 6, and grass species 7, 8. As shifts in soil C and N pools might further potentially influence climate change, the information is critically important that the direction and magnitude of soil C and N changes would be caused by plant encroachment. Changes in both SOC and soil N pools that are highly dependent on physico-chemical quality and composition of plant litter could be caused by plant encroachment via altering species composition, and consequently C and N inputs and outputs from the soil 3. The soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) pools, an important component of terrestrial carbon and nitrogen pools, play a crucial role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles 1, 2. Continued bamboo encroachment into evergreen broadleaved forests seems likely to lead to net CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere as ecosystem C stocks decline. We conclude that moso bamboo encroachment on broadleaved forest not only substantially altered soil C and N pools, but also changed the distribution pattern of C and N in the studied forest soils. Changes in soil C and N occurred mainly in the topsoil. Over nine years, moso bamboo encroachment leads to a decrease in SOC and total soil N, an increase in MBC and WSOC, and a decrease in MBN and WSON. We selected three sites, each with three plots arrayed along the bamboo encroachment pathway: moso bamboo forest (BF) transition zone, mixed forest plots (MF) and broad-leaved forest (BLF), and examined how bamboo encroachment affects soil organic C (SOC), soil total N, microbial biomass C (MBC), microbial biomass N (MBN), water-soluble organic C (WSOC), and water-soluble organic N (WSON) in three forests. Little is known about how this conversion alters soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Across southern China, Moso bamboo has been encroaching on most neighboring secondary broad-leaved forests and/or coniferous plantations, leading to the land cover changes that alter abiotic and biotic conditions.
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