REGULAR ARTICLE Dynamics of soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in calcareous soils after land-use abandonment – A chronosequence study Marie Spohn & Tibor József Novák & József Incze & Luise Giani Received: 17 January 2015 /Accepted: 8 May 2015 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Abstract Aims The objective of this study was to investigate changes in soil total organic C (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (P) fractions, and microbial commu- nity structure during secondary succession after aban- donment of vineyards on calcareous soils. Methods Two chronosequences covering 200 years and differing in aspect and slope were established in Hungary, and the upper 10 cm of the mineral soils were studied. Results We found strong increases in TOC concentra- tions after land-use abandonment, especially at the south-exposed sites. The TOC/TN ratio increased by a factor of 1.3 in the south-west exposed chronosequence and by a factor of 1.6 in south exposed chronosequence. The concentration of labile P (NaHCO 3 -extractable P) diminished during the first 50 years after land-use aban- donment, leading to low P availability at the later stages of the succession. The total organic P (TOP) concentra- tion increased during the first 40 years after abandon- ment. At the later stages of succession, TOP concentra- tions decreased again, while the ratio of TOC/TOP increased continuously over 200 years. The ratio of arbuscular-mycorrhizal-fungi-to-bacteria (AMF/bacte- ria) increased strongly during the first decade after abandonment of the vineyards. Conclusions Our study indicates that impacts of former cultivation on secondary ecosystems persisted for more than a century, and that especially P concentrations showed long lasting legacy effects. Keywords Land-use abandonment . Chronosequence . Phosphorus fractions . Organic phosphorus . Stoichiometry . Microbial community composition Introduction Former arable land-use can have strong legacy effects on secondary ecosystems (Dupouey et al. 2002; Foster et al. 2003; McLauchlan 2006). During the last decades many agricultural sites have been abandoned especially in Eastern Europe (Ramankutty 2006; Ramankutty and Foley 1998; Kurganova et al. 2010, 2014), and in little accessible areas such as terraced fields and vineyards (Dunjó et al. 2003; Koulouri and Giourga 2007; Zornozoa et al. 2009; Tarolli et al. 2014). Effects of land-use history on carbon (C), nutrients, vegetation, Plant Soil DOI 10.1007/s11104-015-2513-6 Responsible Editor: Benjamin L. Turner. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11104-015-2513-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. Spohn (*) Department of Soil Ecology, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University Bayreuth, Dr. Hans-Frisch-Str. 1-3, 95448 Bayreuth, Germany e-mail: marie.spohn@uni-bayreuth.de T. J. Novák : J. Incze Department of Landscape Protection and Environmental Geography, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary L. Giani Department of Soil Science, Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany