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Differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types in a temperate forest ecosystem.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the controls on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for modeling responses of ecosystem carbon balance to global change, yet few studies provide explicit knowledge on the direct and indirect effects of forest stands on soil carbon via microbial processes. We investigated tree species, soil, and site factors in relation to soil carbon density and mineralization in a temperate forest of central China. We found that soil microbial biomass and community structure, extracellular enzyme activities, and most of the site factors studied varied significantly across contrasting forest types, and that the associations between activities of soil extracellular enzymes and microbial community structure appeared to be weak and inconsistent across forest types, implicating complex mechanisms in the microbial regulation of soil carbon metabolism in relation to tree species. Overall, variations in soil carbon density and mineralization are predominantly accounted for by shared effects of tree species, soil, microclimate, and microbial traits rather than the individual effects of the four categories of factors. Our findings point to differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types and highlight the challenge to incorporate microbial processes for constraining soil carbon dynamics in global carbon cycle models.

SUBMITTER: You YM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4772072 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types in a temperate forest ecosystem.

You Ye-Ming YM Wang Juan J Sun Xiao-Lu XL Tang Zuo-Xin ZX Zhou Zhi-Yong ZY Sun Osbert Jianxin OJ

Scientific reports 20160301

Understanding the controls on soil carbon dynamics is crucial for modeling responses of ecosystem carbon balance to global change, yet few studies provide explicit knowledge on the direct and indirect effects of forest stands on soil carbon via microbial processes. We investigated tree species, soil, and site factors in relation to soil carbon density and mineralization in a temperate forest of central China. We found that soil microbial biomass and community structure, extracellular enzyme acti ...[more]

PMID: 26925871

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Project description:Most experimental studies measuring the effects of climate change on terrestrial C cycling have focused on processes that occur at relatively short time scales (up to a few years). However, climate-soil C interactions are influenced over much longer time scales by bioturbation and soil weathering affecting soil fertility, ecosystem productivity, and C storage. Elevated CO2can increase belowground C inputs and stimulate soil biota, potentially affecting bioturbation, and can decrease soil pH which could accelerate soil weathering rates. To determine whether we could resolve any changes in bioturbation or C storage, we investigated soil profiles collected from ambient and elevated-CO2plots at the Free-Air Carbon-Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) forest site at Oak Ridge National Laboratory after 11 years of 13C-depleted CO2 release. Profiles of organic carbon concentration, ?13C values, and activities of 137Cs, 210Pb, and 226Ra were measured to ?30 cm depth in replicated soil cores to evaluate the effects of elevated CO2 on these parameters. Bioturbation models based on fitting advection-diffusion equations to 137Cs and 210Pb profiles showed that ambient and elevated-CO2 plots had indistinguishable ranges of apparent biodiffusion constants, advection rates, and soil mixing times, although apparent biodiffusion constants and advection rates were larger for 137Cs than for 210Pb as is generally observed in soils. Temporal changes in profiles of ?13C values of soil organic carbon (SOC) suggest that addition of new SOC at depth was occurring at a faster rate than that implied by the net advection term of the bioturbation model. Ratios of (210Pb/226Ra) may indicate apparent soil mixing cells that are consistent with biological mechanisms, possibly earthworms and root proliferation, driving C addition and the mixing of soil between ?4 cm and ?18 cm depth. Burial of SOC by soil mixing processes could substantially increase the net long-term storage of soil C and should be incorporated in soil-atmosphere interaction models.

Dataset Information

Differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types in a temperate forest ecosystem.

Publications

Differential controls on soil carbon density and mineralization among contrasting forest types in a temperate forest ecosystem.

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