Responses of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus to two consecutive drying–rewetting cycles in soils

Summary

Abstract Drying and rewetting cycles are known to be important for the dynamics of carbon (C), phosphorus (P), and nitrogen (N) in soils. This study reports the short‐term responses of these nutrients to consecutive drying and rewetting cycles and how varying soil moisture content affects microbial biomass C and P (MBC and MBP), as well as associated carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. The soil was incubated for 14 d during which two successive drying–rewetting episodes were imposed on the soils. Soils subjected to drying (DRW) were rewetted on the seventh day of each drying period to return them to 60% water holding capacity, whilst continually moist samples (M), with soil maintained at 60% water holding capacity, were used as control samples. During the first seve