SOIL CARBON STORAGE · Soil C cycling and ecosystem processes: effects of plant diversity, plant community composition, N deposition and herbivory on soil C storage dynamics
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2006-07-15 → 2009-01-14
- EU contribution
- €235,297
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- OIF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - SOIL CARBON STORAGE (Soil C cycling and ecosystem processes: effects of plant diversity, plant community composition, N deposition and herbivory on soil C storage ...)
Our results show that both plant species diversity and plant functional composition can greatly influence the delivery of critical ecosystem services such as primary productivity and soil carbon sequestration in nitrogen-limited grasslands. In particular the simultaneous presence of different plant functional groups in mixed plant communities contributes to enhance primary productivity through different effects on seasonal soil nitrogen supply and use, seasonal soil moisture, root production and the root nitrogen pool to maximise aboveground productivity. We also show that soil carbon sequestration is strongly positively affected by species diversity and by the presence of particular plant functional groups in the plant community (i.e. C4 grasses and legumes). These results may have important implications for the management of grasslands to maximise hay yields (i.e. bio-fuels production) and soil carbon sequestration. Results of this research study led to a United States patent entitled 'Compositions and methods for sequestering carbon'. IPC8 Class: AA01G100FI, USPC Class: 47 581R. Other work carried out at Lancaster, and based on samples taken from the Park Grass experiment at Rothamsted (the longest running grassland experiment in the world) has shown that that soil organic C sequestration increases if grassland soils are regularly limed, which although based on one site has potentially significant implications for the management of grassland for ecosystem services.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Human actions are causing (1) declines in biodiversity, (2) increases in atmospheric CO2 and (3) increases in N deposition. The interactive effects of these factors and their consequences on ecosystem processes are unknown, though they play a critical role in global soil C storage dynamics. Recent data from well-replicated, long-term studies on the effects of plant diversity on both ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration show that enhanced biomass accumulation is positively related to plant diversity. Moreover, preliminary work suggests that plant species composition may be as important as species diversity in affecting soil C sequestration. Finally, biotic factors such as herbivory through indirect effects on plant roots, affect long-term fate of C and below-ground processes. Hence, the present project aims to address the effects of (1) plant diversity, (2) plant community composition, (3) N deposition, and (4) herbivory on soil C storage dynamics. The study will make use of a well-replicated, long-term study design that has been established in 1994 at Cedar Creek, Minnesota, US, as well as glasshouse experiments using isotopic techniques in the UK. Soil and plant material will be measured for C and N. Data on plant productivity, N mineralization rat es, C:N ratios, and nitrogen use efficiency will be collected according to different treatments. The research project is the first, to our knowledge, to test the effects of varying biodiversity, species functional composition and N fertilization on soil C storage dynamics at the ecosystem-scale being part of a well-replicated, long-term factorial grassland biodiversity experiment. Therefore, the overall results of the study will contribute to the important ongoing scientific research, which focuses on the effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems, with a particular bias towards those mechanisms involved in the global C storage dynamics.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- LANCASTER UNIVERSITY · LANCASTERCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
- UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · SAINT PAULCity levelUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union