Plant Diversity and Nitrogen Addition on Belowground Biodiversity and Soil Organic Carbon Storage in Biofuel Cropping Systems

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.18122/td/1701/boisestate ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer Butt

Keyword(s):

Plant Community ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Community Diversity ◽

Big Bluestem ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Soil C ◽

C Storage ◽

Bioenergy Cropping Systems

Bioenergy production may reduce the emission of CO2 which contributes to climate change, particularly when management strategies are adopted that promote soil carbon (C) sequestration in bioenergy cropping systems. Planting perennial native grasses, such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman) may be used as a strategy to enhance soil C accumulation owing to their extensive root systems. Fertilizer use may further promote soil C sequestration, because of its positive impacts on plant production and soil C input. However, the influence of fertilizer addition on soil C accumulation is variable across bioenergy cropping systems, and fertilizer can negatively impact the environment. Increasing plant diversity may be used as a strategy to enhance soil C accumulation while augmenting other ecosystem properties such as soil biodiversity. The present study evaluates how inter- and intra- specific plant community diversity and N addition influence soil C storage and soil biodiversity. Soil was collected from a long-term (9 growing seasons) field experiment located at the Fermilab National Environmental Research Park in Illinois, USA. Treatments included [1] three cultivars of big bluestem and three cultivars of switchgrass cultivars grown in monoculture, [2] plant community diversity manipulated at both the species- and cultivar level, and [3] nitrogen (N) applied annually at two levels (0 and 67 kg ha-1). The soil at the site was dominated by C3 grasses for 30 years before replacement with C4 bioenergy grasses, which enabled quantification of plant-derived C accumulation owing to the natural difference in isotopic signature between C3 and C4 grasses. Soil samples were analyzed for [1] soil C and its δ13C isotopic signature, and [2] nematode and soil bacterial diversity. Our results indicate that both plant diversity and N addition influence soil community structure but not soil C storage or soil nematode biodiversity. However, the addition of big bluestem to the plant species mixes enhanced plant-derived C storage. In summary, our findings suggest that plant species identity can control soil C accumulation in the years following land conversion, and that manipulating plant community structure in bioenergy cropping systems may have a greater positive impact on soil C accumulation than N fertilization.

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Higher stand densities can promote soil carbon storage after conversion of temperate mixed natural forests to larch plantations

European Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1007/s10342-020-01346-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Meng Na ◽

Xiaoyang Sun ◽

Yandong Zhang ◽

Zhihu Sun ◽

Johannes Rousk

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Soil Carbon ◽

Stand Density ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Tree Density ◽

Natural Forests ◽

Soil C ◽

C Storage ◽

Soil C Storage ◽

Soil C Sequestration

AbstractSoil carbon (C) reservoirs held in forests play a significant role in the global C cycle. However, harvesting natural forests tend to lead to soil C loss, which can be countered by the establishment of plantations after clear cutting. Therefore, there is a need to determine how forest management can affect soil C sequestration. The management of stand density could provide an effective tool to control soil C sequestration, yet how stand density influences soil C remains an open question. To address this question, we investigated soil C storage in 8-year pure hybrid larch (Larix spp.) plantations with three densities (2000 trees ha−1, 3300 trees ha−1 and 4400 trees ha−1), established following the harvesting of secondary mixed natural forest. We found that soil C storage increased with higher tree density, which mainly correlated with increases of dissolved organic C as well as litter and root C input. In addition, soil respiration decreased with higher tree density during the most productive periods of warm and moist conditions. The reduced SOM decomposition suggested by lowered respiration was also corroborated with reduced levels of plant litter decomposition. The stimulated inputs and reduced exports of C from the forest floor resulted in a 40% higher soil C stock in high- compared to low-density forests within 8 years after plantation, providing effective advice for forest management to promote soil C sequestration in ecosystems.

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Climate and plant community diversity in space and time

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1921724117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 117 (9) ◽

pp. 4464-4470 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Susan Harrison ◽

Marko J. Spasojevic ◽

Daijiang Li

Keyword(s):

Plant Community ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Community Diversity ◽

Niche Conservatism ◽

Space And Time ◽

Drying Trend ◽

Functional And Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Over Time

Climate strongly shapes plant diversity over large spatial scales, with relatively warm and wet (benign, productive) regions supporting greater numbers of species. Unresolved aspects of this relationship include what causes it, whether it permeates to community diversity at smaller spatial scales, whether it is accompanied by patterns in functional and phylogenetic diversity as some hypotheses predict, and whether it is paralleled by climate-driven changes in diversity over time. Here, studies of Californian plants are reviewed and new analyses are conducted to synthesize climate–diversity relationships in space and time. Across spatial scales and organizational levels, plant diversity is maximized in more productive (wetter) climates, and these consistent spatial relationships are mirrored in losses of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity over time during a recent climatic drying trend. These results support the tolerance and climatic niche conservatism hypotheses for climate–diversity relationships, and suggest there is some predictability to future changes in diversity in water-limited climates.

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Reforestation can sequester two petagrams of carbon in US topsoils in a century

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1719685115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 115 (11) ◽

pp. 2776-2781 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Lucas E. Nave ◽

Grant M. Domke ◽

Kathryn L. Hofmeister ◽

Umakant Mishra ◽

Charles H. Perry ◽

...

Keyword(s):

National Level ◽

Mineral Soil ◽

C Sequestration ◽

The United States ◽

Forest Sector ◽

Soil C ◽

C Storage ◽

C Stocks ◽

The Us ◽

Land Use And Management

Soils are Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon (C) pool, and their responsiveness to land use and management make them appealing targets for strategies to enhance C sequestration. Numerous studies have identified practices that increase soil C, but their inferences are often based on limited data extrapolated over large areas. Here, we combine 15,000 observations from two national-level databases with remote sensing information to address the impacts of reforestation on the sequestration of C in topsoils (uppermost mineral soil horizons). We quantify C stocks in cultivated, reforesting, and natural forest topsoils; rates of C accumulation in reforesting topsoils; and their contribution to the US forest C sink. Our results indicate that reforestation increases topsoil C storage, and that reforesting lands, currently occupying >500,000 km2 in the United States, will sequester a cumulative 1.3–2.1 Pg C within a century (13–21 Tg C·y−1). Annually, these C gains constitute 10% of the US forest sector C sink and offset 1% of all US greenhouse gas emissions.

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A comparison between vegetable intercropping systems and monocultures in greenhouse gas emissions under organic management

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13415 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Virginia Sánchez-Navarro ◽

Mariano Marcos-Pérez ◽

Raúl Zornoza

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Experimental Period ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Organic Management ◽

Soil C ◽

Dynamic Chamber ◽

Cucumis Melo L

Legume crops have been proposed as a way of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because both, their rhizosphere behaviour and their ability to fix atmospheric N reducing the need of external N fertilizer. Moreover, the establishment of organic agriculture has been proposed as a sustainable strategy to enhance the delivery of ecosystem services, including mitigation of climate change by decreases in GHG emissions and increases in soil C sequestration. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the association between cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) growing in different intercropping patterns on soil CO2 and N2O emissions compared to cowpea and melon monocultures under organic management as a possible strategy for climate change mitigation. Soil CO2 and N2O emissions were weekly measured in melon and cowpea rows using the dynamic chamber method during one cropping cycle in 2019. Results indicated that melon growing as monoculture was related to increases in O cumulative emissions (0.431 g m-2) compared to the average of the rest of treatments (0.036 g m-2). Cowpea growing as monoculture was related to decreases in CO2 cumulative emissions (390 g m-2) compared with the other treatments (512 g m-2 average). However, N2O and CO2 emission patterns did not directly follow soil moisture patterns in the experimental period, with no significant correlations. Finally there were no significant differences among intercropping treatments with regard to NO2 and CO2 emissions. Further measurements are needed to monitor the evolution of GHG emissions under these cropping systems and confirm the trend observed.

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Soil aggregation according to the dynamics of carbon and nitrogen in soil under different cropping systems

Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira ◽

10.1590/s0100-204x2016000900065 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 51 (9) ◽

pp. 1652-1659 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Getulio de Freitas Seben Junior ◽

José Eduardo Corá ◽

Rattan Lal

Keyword(s):

Cropping Systems ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Pigeon Pea ◽

Soil Aggregation ◽

Total N ◽

Soil C ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Physical Fractionation ◽

C Stock ◽

C And N

Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate total soil carbon and nitrogen, as well as their contents in particulate and mineral-associated C fractions; to determine C stock and sequestration rates in the soil; and to verify the effect of C and N contents on soil aggregation, using different crop rotations and crop sequences under no-tillage. The study was carried out for nine years in a clayey Oxisol. The treatments consisted of different cropping systems formed by the combination of three summer crops (cropped until March) - corn (Zea mays) monocropping, soybean (Glycine max) monocropping, and soybean/corn rotation - and seven second crops (crop successions). Soil samples were taken at the 0.00-0.10-m layer for physical fractionation of C and N, and to determine soil aggregation by the wet method. Soybean monocropping increased C and N in particulate C fraction, while the crop systems with corn monocropping x pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), corn monocropping x sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea), and soybean monocropping x corn as a crop succession increased total C in the soil. Greater rates of soil C sequestration were observed with soybean/corn rotation and with soybean monocropping, as well as with sun hemp as a second crop. The increase in total N increases soil C stock. Soil aggregation was most affected at particulate C fraction. Increases in soil N promote C addition to particulate fraction and enhance soil aggregation.

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Contrasting effect of coniferous and broadleaf trees on soil carbon storage during reforestation of mature soils and afforestation of immature soils

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14052 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lucie Hublova ◽

Jan Frouz

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

C:N Ratio ◽

Clay Content ◽

Common Garden ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Soil Development ◽

Alkaline Soils ◽

Soil C ◽

Coniferous Trees ◽

C Storage

Soils and forest soil in particular represent important pools of carbon (C). Here, we present a quantitative review of common garden experiments in which various tree species were planted alongside each other in European countries to answer following questions: Does soil sequester more C under broadleaf than under conifer trees? and How do the effects of tree species and litter quality on soil C sequestration change with soil development (i.e., maturity) and other soil properties? We found that the effects of broadleaf and coniferous trees on C sequestration differed with the stage of soil development. In mature soils, more C was stored under coniferous trees than under broadleaf trees. In soils in early stages of soil development, on post-mining spoil heaps, the opposite trend was found, i.e., more C was stored under broadleaf. C sequestration under broadleaf trees was highest in immature soils and in soils with high pH. C sequestration was negatively correlated with the litter C:N ratio in post-mining soils but not in other more mature soils. Similarly C sequestration was negatively correlated with the litter C:N&#160; in alkaline soils and in soil with high clay content. These results suggest that C sequestration mechanisms differ in immature vs. mature soils such that C storage is greater under broadleaf trees in immature soils but is greater under coniferous trees in mature soils. The study was supported by LIFE17/IPE/CZ/000005 project

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The role of temperate treed swamps as a carbon sink in southwestern Nova Scotia

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/cjfr-2019-0311 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 78-88

Author(s):

Rachel A. Kendall ◽

Karen A. Harper ◽

David Burton ◽

Kevin Hamdan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Nova Scotia ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Forested Wetlands ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Soil C ◽

C Storage ◽

C Cycle

Forested wetlands may represent important ecosystems for mitigating climate change effects through carbon (C) sequestration because of their slow decomposition and C storage by trees. Despite this potential importance, few studies have acknowledged the role of temperate treed swamps in the C cycle. In southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada, we examined the role of treed swamps in the soil C cycle by determining C inputs through litterfall, assessing decomposition rates and soil C pools, and quantifying C outputs through soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The treed swamps were found to represent large supplies of C inputs through litterfall to the forest floor. The swamp soils had substantially greater C stores than the swamp–upland edge or upland soils. We found growing season C inputs via litterfall to exceed C outputs via GHG emissions in the swamps by a factor of about 2.5. Our findings indicate that temperate treed swamps can remain a C sink even if soil GHG emissions were to double, supporting conservation efforts to preserve temperate treed swamps as a measure to mitigate climate change.

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Climate-smart agriculture: microbiological impacts of plant diversity to soil carbon (C) sequestration.

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13588 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rashmi Shrestha ◽

Karoliina Huusko ◽

Anna-Reetta Salonen ◽

Jussi Heinonsalo

Keyword(s):

Microbial Activity ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Cover Crops ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Am Fungi ◽

C Sequestration ◽

Fungal Colonization ◽

Soil C ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Diversity Effect

Soil organic matter (SOM) is any material produced by living organisms at various stages of decomposition. SOM enhances soil fertility and quality and influences soil&#8217;s ability to fight against soil-borne diseases. Atmospheric CO2 sequestration into SOM through improved agricultural management practices has been suggested to be a cost effective way to mitigate climate change.The build-up of SOM is largely regulated by soil microbial activity. Soil microbes use most plant-derived C and either produce CO2 or incorporate C into their biomass and after death microbial necromass may contribute to stable SOM. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are one of the root colonizing soil microbes important in nutrient cycling, plant nutrition, growth and composition and maybe soil aggregation. The benefits of microbes including AM fungi should be thus utilized for climate friendly agriculture by magnifying their benefits via better agricultural management.Cover crops use is one of the climate friendly agricultural practices. Cover crops if managed right, can provide several benefits e.g. enhanced soil C sequestration, reduced emissions from fertilizer production, weed suppression, better soil moisture retention and microbial activity. Moreover, use of diverse cover crops may favor higher soil biodiversity leading to high SOM content. In this project, plant diversity impacts on soil and root fungal community composition and microbial activity related to soil C sequestration were studied in a field experiment. In addition, special attention was given to AM fungi.The field experiment was started in May, 2019 in Viikki Research farm, University of Helsinki. The experiment consists of seven treatments comparing four different levels of biodiversity to conventional monoculture treatments and bare fallow. Eight different species of cover crops representing four functional traits were sown under barley: 1) nitrogen (N2)-fixing + shallow rooting , 2) deep rooting, 3) N2-fixing +deep rooting and 4) no N2-fixing and shallow rooting. Barley and cover crop root samples and soil samples were collected from two growing seasons 2019 and 2020. Root samples were analyzed for AM fungal colonization %. Soil samples were analyzed for soil microbial biomass and microbial respiration in different seasons. Preliminary results showed no significant cover crop diversity effect on AM fungal colonization % in barley root in 2019. Soil microbial biomass and soil microbial respiration showed seasonal variations but not significant cover crop diversity effect. Therefore, fungal communities in soil and root will be examined using Illumina (MiSeq) sequencing targeting the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Soil enzyme activities and carbon use efficiency will be performed to gain insight into microbial activity. Obtained results will show if microbial community and activity is affected by either plant family composition or plant diversity.

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