Journal Article

PreJuSER-56245

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Plant diversity positively affects short-term soil carbon storage in experimental grasslands

Steinbeiss, S. ; Beßler, H. ; Engels, C. ; Temperton, V. M.FZJ* ; Buchmann, N. ; Roscher, C. ; Kreutziger, Y. ; Baade, J. ; Habekost, M. ; Gleixner, G.

2008
Wiley-Blackwell Oxford [u.a.]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01697.x

Abstract: Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and related climate change have stimulated much interest in the potential of soils to sequester carbon. In ‘The Jena Experiment’, a managed grassland experiment on a former agricultural field, we investigated the link between plant diversity and soil carbon storage. The biodiversity gradient ranged from one to 60 species belonging to four functional groups. Stratified soil samples were taken to 30 cm depth from 86 plots in 2002, 2004 and 2006, and organic carbon contents were determined. Soil organic carbon stocks in 0–30 cm decreased from 7.3 kg C m−2 in 2002 to 6.9 kg C m−2 in 2004, but had recovered to 7.8 kg C m−2 by 2006. During the first 2 years, carbon storage was limited to the top 5 cm of soil while below 10 cm depth, carbon was lost probably as short-term effect of the land use change. After 4 years, carbon stocks significantly increased within the top 20 cm. More importantly, carbon storage significantly increased with sown species richness (log-transformed) in all depth segments and even carbon losses were significantly smaller with higher species richness. Although increasing species diversity increased root biomass production, statistical analyses revealed that species diversity per se was more important than biomass production for changes in soil carbon. Below 20 cm depth, the presence of one functional group, tall herbs, significantly reduced carbon losses in the beginning of the experiment. Our analysis indicates that plant species richness and certain plant functional traits accelerate the build-up of new carbon pools within 4 years. Additionally, higher plant diversity mitigated soil carbon losses in deeper horizons. This suggests that higher biodiversity might lead to higher soil carbon sequestration in the long-term and therefore the conservation of biodiversity might play a role in greenhouse gas mitigation.

Keyword(s): carbon sequestration (auto) ; functional groups (auto) ; managed grassland (auto) ; root biomass input (auto) ; soil organic matter (auto) ; species richness (auto) ; The Jena Experiment (auto)

Note: The current project (GL 262-6) and The Jena Experiment in general is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of a large research group (FOR 456) with additional support from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Max Planck Society. We gratefully acknowledge all the people who were involved in the planning and the setup of the experiment, especially E.-D. Schulze, W. W. Weisser, B. Schmid and J. Schumacher. Numerous student helpers assisted in soil sampling campaigns and sample preparation, especially C. Noll, C. Seidel, M. Pieles, and K. Muller. Many thanks also go to the gardeners S. Eismann, S. Junghans, B. Lenk, H. Scheffler, U. Wehmeier as well as the numerous student helpers who maintained the field site by weeding and regular maintenance work. The method development and quality control of soil organic carbon measurements was performed by Ines Hilke at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena.

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Research Program(s):

1. Terrestrische Umwelt (P24)

Appears in the scientific report 2008

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