Climate-dependent plant responses to earthworms in two land-use types.

Plant nutrient uptake and productivity are driven by a multitude of factors that have been modified by human activities, like climate change and the activity of decomposers. However, interactive effects of climate change and key decomposer groups like earthworms have rarely been studied. In a field microcosm experiment, we investigated the effects of a mean future climate scenario with warming (+ 0.50 °C to + 0.62 °C) and altered precipitation (+ 10% in spring and autumn, - 20% in summer) and earthworms (anecic-two Lumbricus terrestris, endogeic-four Allolobophora chlorotica and both together within 10 cm diameter tubes) on plant biomass and stoichiometry in two land-use types (intensively used meadow and conventional farming). We found little evidence for earthworm effects on aboveground biomass. However, future climate increased above- (+40.9%) and belowground biomass (+44.7%) of grass communities, which was mainly driven by production of the dominant Festulolium species during non-summer drought periods, but decreased the aboveground biomass (- 36.9%) of winter wheat. Projected climate change and earthworms interactively affected the N content and C:N ratio of grasses. Earthworms enhanced the N content (+1.2%) thereby decreasing the C:N ratio (- 4.1%) in grasses, but only under ambient climate conditions. The future climate treatment generally decreased the N content of grasses (aboveground: - 1.1%, belowground: - 0.15%) and winter wheat (- 0.14%), resulting in an increase in C:N ratio of grasses (aboveground: + 4.2%, belowground: +6.3%) and wheat (+5.9%). Our results suggest that climate change diminishes the positive effects of earthworms on plant nutrient uptakes due to soil water deficit, especially during summer drought.

The heterogeneity-diversity-system performance nexus.

Ever-growing human population and nutritional demands, supply chain disruptions, and advancing climate change have led to the realization that changes in diversity and system performance are intimately linked. Moreover, diversity and system performance depend on heterogeneity. Mitigating changes in system performance and promoting sustainable living conditions requires transformative decisions. Here, we introduce the heterogeneity-diversity-system performance (HDP) nexus as the conceptual basis upon which to formulate transformative decisions. We suggest that managing the heterogeneity of systems will best allow diversity to provide multiple benefits to people. Based on ecological theory, we pose that the HDP nexus is broadly applicable across systems, disciplines, and sectors, and should thus be considered in future decision making as a way to have a more sustainable global future.

Unlocking complex soil systems as carbon sinks: multi-pool management as the key.

Much research focuses on increasing carbon storage in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM), in which carbon may persist for centuries to millennia. However, MAOM-targeted management is insufficient because the formation pathways of persistent soil organic matter are diverse and vary with environmental conditions. Effective management must also consider particulate organic matter (POM). In many soils, there is potential for enlarging POM pools, POM can persist over long time scales, and POM can be a direct precursor of MAOM. We present a framework for context-dependent management strategies that recognizes soils as complex systems in which environmental conditions constrain POM and MAOM formation.

Post-fire forest floor succession in a Central European temperate forest depends on organic matter input from recovering vegetation rather than on pyrogenic carbon input from fire.

The predicted global increase in the frequency, severity, and intensity of forest fires includes Central Europe, which is not currently considered as a wildfire hotspot. Because of this, a detailed knowledge of long-term post-fire forest floor succession is essential for understanding the role of wildfires in Central European temperate forests. In this study, we used a space-for-time substitution approach and exploited a unique opportunity to observe successional changes in the physical, chemical, and microbial properties of the forest floor in coniferous forest stands on a chronosequence up to 110 years after fire. In addition, we assessed whether the depletion of organic matter (OM) and input of pyrogenic carbon (pyC) have significant effects on the post-fire forest floor succession. The bulk density (+174 %), pH (+4 %), and dissolved phosphorus content (+500 %) increased, whereas the water holding capacity (-51 %), content of total organic carbon and total nitrogen (-50 %), total phosphorus (-40 %), dissolved organic carbon (-23 %), microbial respiration and biomass (-60 %), and the abundance of fungi (-65 %) and bacteria (-45 %) decreased shortly after the fire event and then gradually decreased or increased, respectively, relative to the pre-disturbance state. The post-fire forest floor succession was largely dependent on changes in the OM content rather than the pyC content, and thus was dependent on vegetation recovery. The time needed to recover to the pre-disturbance state was <110 years for physical and chemical properties and < 45 years for microbial properties. These times closely correspond to previous studies focusing on the recovery of forest floor properties in different climate zones, suggesting that the times needed for forest vegetation and forest floor properties to recover to the pre-disturbance state are similar across climate zones.

Earthworms as catalysts in the formation and stabilization of soil microbial necromass.

Microbial necromass is a central component of soil organic matter (SOM), whose management may be essential in mitigating atmospheric CO2 concentrations and climate change. Current consensus regards the magnitude of microbial necromass production to be heavily dependent on the carbon use efficiency of microorganisms, which is strongly influenced by the quality of the organic matter inputs these organisms feed on. However, recent concepts neglect agents relevant in many soils: earthworms. We argue that the activity of earthworms accelerates the formation of microbial necromass stabilized in aggregates and organo-mineral associations and reduces the relevance of the quality of pre-existing organic matter in this process. Earthworms achieve this through the creation of transient hotspots (casts) characterized by elevated contents of bioavailable substrate and the efficient build-up and quick turnover of microbial biomass, thus converting SOM not mineralized in this process into a state more resistant against external disturbances, such as climate change. Promoting the abundance of earthworms may, therefore, be considered a central component of management strategies that aim to accelerate the formation of stabilized microbial necromass in wide locations of the soil commonly not considered hotspots of microbial SOM formation.

Earthworms act as biochemical reactors to convert labile plant compounds into stabilized soil microbial necromass.

Earthworms co-determine whether soil, as the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir, acts as source or sink for photosynthetically fixed CO2. However, conclusive evidence for their role in stabilising or destabilising soil carbon has not been fully established. Here, we demonstrate that earthworms function like biochemical reactors by converting labile plant compounds into microbial necromass in stabilised carbon pools without altering bulk measures, such as the total carbon content. We show that much of this microbial carbon is not associated with mineral surfaces and emphasise the functional importance of particulate organic matter for long-term carbon sequestration. Our findings suggest that while earthworms do not necessarily affect soil organic carbon stocks, they do increase the resilience of soil carbon to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Our results have implications for climate change mitigation and challenge the assumption that mineral-associated organic matter is the only relevant pool for soil carbon sequestration.

Soil organic carbon stability in forests: Distinct effects of tree species identity and traits.

Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased interest in the potential for forest ecosystems and soils to act as carbon (C) sinks. While soil organic C contents often vary with tree species identity, little is known about if, and how, tree species influence the stability of C in soil. Using a 40 year old common garden experiment with replicated plots of eleven temperate tree species, we investigated relationships between soil organic matter (SOM) stability in mineral soils and 17 ecological factors (including tree tissue chemistry, magnitude of organic matter inputs to the soil and their turnover, microbial community descriptors, and soil physicochemical properties). We measured five SOM stability indices, including heterotrophic respiration, C in aggregate occluded particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral associated SOM, and bulk SOM δ15 N and ∆14 C. The stability of SOM varied substantially among tree species, and this variability was independent of the amount of organic C in soils. Thus, when considering forest soils as C sinks, the stability of C stocks must be considered in addition to their size. Further, our results suggest tree species regulate soil C stability via the composition of their tissues, especially roots. Stability of SOM appeared to be greater (as indicated by higher δ15 N and reduced respiration) beneath species with higher concentrations of nitrogen and lower amounts of acid insoluble compounds in their roots, while SOM stability appeared to be lower (as indicated by higher respiration and lower proportions of C in aggregate occluded POM) beneath species with higher tissue calcium contents. The proportion of C in mineral associated SOM and bulk soil ∆14 C, though, were negligibly dependent on tree species traits, likely reflecting an insensitivity of some SOM pools to decadal scale shifts in ecological factors. Strategies aiming to increase soil C stocks may thus focus on particulate C pools, which can more easily be manipulated and are most sensitive to climate change.

Fast accrual of C and N in soil organic matter fractions following post-mining reclamation across the USA.

Reclamation of post-mining sites commonly results in rapid accrual of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents due to increasing plant inputs over time. However, little information is available on the distribution of C and N contents with respect to differently stabilized soil organic matter (SOM) fractions during succession or as a result of different reclamation practice. Hence, it remains widely unknown how stable or labile these newly formed C and N pools are. Gaining a deeper understanding of the state of these pools may provide important implications for reclamation practices with respect to C sequestration. We thus investigated C, N, and plant-derived compounds in bulk soil and SOM fractions during succession in post-mining chronosequences (reclaimed with overburden or salvaged topsoil) located along a northwest to southeast transect across the USA. Our results indicate that current reclamation practices perform well with respect to rapid recovery of soil aggregates and the partitioning of C and N to different SOM fractions, these measures being similar to those of natural climax vegetation sites already 2-5 years after reclamation. A general applicability of our results to other post-mining sites with similar reclamation practices may be inferred from the fact that the observed patterns were consistent along the investigated transect, covering different climates and vegetation across the USA. However, regarding SOM stability, the use of salvaged topsoil may be beneficial as compared to that of overburden material because C and N in the fraction regarded as most stable was by 26 and 35% lower at sites restored with overburden as compared to those restored with salvaged topsoil. Plant-derived compounds appeared to be mainly related to bio-available particulate organic matter and particulate organic matter partly stabilized within aggregates, challenging the long-term persistence of plant input C in post-mining soils.

Tracing the sources and spatial distribution of organic carbon in subsoils using a multi-biomarker approach.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) from aboveground and belowground sources has rarely been differentiated although it may drive SOC turnover and stabilization due to a presumed differing source dependent degradability. It is thus crucial to better identify the location of SOC from different sources for the parameterization of SOC models, especially in the less investigated subsoils. The aim of this study was to spatially assess contributions of organic carbon from aboveground and belowground parts of beech trees to subsoil organic carbon in a Dystric Cambisol. Different sources of SOC were distinguished by solvent-extractable and hydrolysable lipid biomarkers aided by (14)C analyses of soil compartments <63 µm. We found no effect of the distance to the trees on the investigated parameters. Instead, a vertical zonation of the subsoil was detected. A high contribution of fresh leaf- and root-derived organic carbon to the upper subsoil (leaf- and root-affected zone) indicate that supposedly fast-cycling, leaf-derived SOC may still be of considerable importance below the A-horizon. In the deeper subsoil (root-affected zone), roots were an important source of fresh SOC. Simultaneously, strongly increasing apparent (14)C ages (3860 yrs BP) indicate considerable contribution of SOC that may be inherited from the Pleistocene parent material.