Soil carbon stocks not linked to aboveground litter input and chemistry of old-growth forest and adjacent prairie

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2024.5. This is version 2 of this Preprint.

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Comment #145 Karis Jensen McFarlane @ 2024-02-14 11:29

This paper was published online 2/12/2024 by the journal Radiocarbon and can be found here (Open Access): https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2024.5

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Authors

Karis Jensen McFarlane , Stefania Mambelli, Rachel Porras, Daniel Wiedemeier, Michael Schmidt, Todd Dawson, Margaret Torn

Abstract

The long-standing assumption that aboveground plant litter inputs have a substantial influence on soil organic carbon storage (SOC) and dynamics has been challenged by a new paradigm for SOC formation and persistence. We tested the importance of plant litter chemistry on SOC storage, distribution, composition, and age by comparing two highly contrasting ecosystems: an old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forest, with highly aromatic litter, and an adjacent coastal prairie, with more easily decomposed litter. We hypothesized that if plant litter chemistry was the primary driver, redwood would store more and older SOC that was less microbially processed than prairie. Total soil carbon stocks to 110 cm depth were higher in prairie (35 kg C m-2) than redwood (28 kg C m-2). Radiocarbon values indicated shorter SOC residence times in redwood than prairie throughout the profile. Higher amounts of pyrogenic carbon and a higher degree of microbial processing of SOC appear to be instrumental for soil carbon storage and persistence in prairie, while differences in fine-root carbon inputs likely contribute to younger SOC in redwood. We conclude that at these sites fire residues, root inputs, and soil properties influence soil carbon dynamics to a greater degree than the properties of aboveground litter.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5N370

Subjects

Life Sciences

Keywords

soil oganic matter, soil carbon, radiocarbon, density fraction, grassland, forest soil, 13C-NMR specroscopy

Dates

Published: 2023-04-14 09:13

Last Updated: 2024-02-14 13:58

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License

CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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Data Availability (Reason not available):
will be available upon acceptance of manuscript for publication