The positive effect of plant diversity on soil carbon depends on climate
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Authors
Little is currently known about how climate modulates the relationship between plant diversity and soil organic carbon and the mechanisms involved. Yet, this knowledge is of crucial importance in times of climate change and biodiversity loss. Here, we show that plant diversity is positively correlated with soil carbon content and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio across 84 grasslands on six continents that span wide climate gradients. The relationships between plant diversity and soil carbon as well as plant diversity and soil organic matter quality (carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) are particularly strong in warm and arid climates. While plant biomass is positively correlated with soil carbon, plant biomass is not significantly correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicate that plant diversity influences soil carbon storage not via the quantity of organic matter (plant biomass) inputs to soil, but through the quality of organic matter. The study implies that ecosystem management that restores plant diversity likely enhances soil carbon sequestration, particularly in warm and arid climates.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6624 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISSN | 2041-1723 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.12.2023 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2023
Funding Information:
This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network ( http://www.nutnet.org ) experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E.T.B. and E.W.S. from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1234162 to Cedar Creek LTER) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. Soil analyses were supported by funds from Oregon State University and University of Minnesota to E.T.B. and E.W.S. and by USDA-ARS grant 58-3098-7-007 to E.T.B., M.S. thanks Björn Lindahl for helpful comments on a previous version of the manuscript and Per-Marten Schleuss for the drawings in Fig. . M.C.C. and M.N.B. gratefully acknowledge the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) for funding the research units CEF (UIDB/00239/2022) and CEABN-InBIO (UID/BIA/50027/2020), and thank Rui Alves for logistic support and for granting access to Companhia das Lezirias study site. L.L. is funded by Estonian Academy of Sciences (research professorship for Arctic studies). S.H. gratefully acknowledges the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG– FZT 118, 202548816). S.L.C. acknowledges the support of NSF-1856383. Y.L. is grateful to MPG Ranch for funding.
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