Abstract:

Soil enzyme is the enzymes mainly from the plant exudation and excreted by microorganisms and released from plant and animal relict decomposition. Soil enzyme system plays a key role in the soil biochemical process and is closely related to the cycle of mass such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur etc. and energy fluxes in forest ecosystem. Presently, soil enzymology has become an essential tool by which monitor soil enzyme activities almost all studies on forest ecosystems. Soil enzymology focus mainly on the enzymatic activity dynamics in litter decomposition process, relationships between soil enzymes and vegetation features and soil biological community dynamics, variations of soil enzymes in the ecological interface between plant and soil, soil enzymatic activity used as bioindicators of forest soil quality, and effects of anthropic activity on forest soil enzyme activity. In view of the function and ecological significance of soil enzyme, it can be expected that research in the field of soil enzymology in twenty-first century will include as follows: (1) investigating soil enzyme system differentiation in the forest ecosystems; (2) determining soil enzyme activity used as the integrative evaluation index of forest soil quality; (3) exploring the interactive effects of vegetation dynamics and soil enzymes; (4) measuring the activities of soil enzymes in degraded forest ecosystem; (5) monitoring the activities of soil enzymes used as soil quality indicators of manmade forests; (6) studying the effects of anthropic activity on forest soil enzyme system. It is suggested that the interaction between the soil enzymes and forest ecosystem should be studied on the basis of the aspects of soil enzyme system differentiation, which will be helpful to understand the plant litter decomposition, the mass cycle, function and ecological significance of the soil enzyme and energy flux in forest ecosystem, and to explore the degraded mechanism of forest ecosystems and its responses on eco-environment disturbance.

Key words: Soil enzyme, Forest ecosystem, Advance