Journal article
Living roots magnify the response of soil organic carbon decomposition to temperature in temperate grassland
Global change biology, Vol.21(3), pp.1368-1375
2015
PMCID: PMC4365897
PMID: 25351704
Abstract
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is both a strong driver of primary productivity and widely believed to be the principal cause of recent increases in global temperature. Soils are the largest store of the world's terrestrial C. Consequently, many investigations have attempted to mechanistically understand how microbial mineralisation of soil organic carbon (SOC) to CO2 will be affected by projected increases in temperature. Most have attempted this in the absence of plants as the flux of CO2 from root and rhizomicrobial respiration in intact plant-soil systems confounds interpretation of measurements. We compared the effect of a small increase in temperature on respiration from soils without recent plant C with the effect on intact grass swards. We found that for 48weeks, before acclimation occurred, an experimental 3 degrees C increase in sward temperature gave rise to a 50% increase in below ground respiration (ca. 0.4kg Cm-2; Q(10)=3.5), whereas mineralisation of older SOC without plants increased with a Q(10) of only 1.7 when subject to increases in ambient soil temperature. Subsequent C-14 dating of respired CO2 indicated that the presence of plants in swards more than doubled the effect of warming on the rate of mineralisation of SOC with an estimated mean C age of ca. 8years or older relative to incubated soils without recent plant inputs. These results not only illustrate the formidable complexity of mechanisms controlling C fluxes in soils but also suggest that the dual biological and physical effects of CO2 on primary productivity and global temperature have the potential to synergistically increase the mineralisation of existing soil C.
Details
- Title
- Living roots magnify the response of soil organic carbon decomposition to temperature in temperate grassland
- Authors/Creators
- Paul W. Hill - Bangor UniversityMark H. Garnett - Scottish EnterpriseJohn Farrar - Bangor UniversityZafar Iqbal - Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and BiologyMuhammad Khalid - University of Agriculture FaisalabadNawaf Soleman - Bangor UniversityDavey L. Jones - Bangor University
- Publication Details
- Global change biology, Vol.21(3), pp.1368-1375
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 8
- Grant note
- NRCF010001 / NERC; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) UK Natural Environment Research Council; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NRCF010001 / Natural Environment Research Council; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
- Identifiers
- 991005560332807891
- Copyright
- © 2014 The Authors.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Centre for Sustainable Farming Systems
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
13 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.45 Soil Science
- 3.45.112 Soil Carbon Dynamics
- Web Of Science research areas
- Biodiversity Conservation
- Ecology
- Environmental Sciences
- ESI research areas
- Environment/Ecology