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Surficial gains and subsoil losses of soil carbon and nitrogen during secondary forest development.

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Date
2015-02
Authors
Mobley, Megan L
Lajtha, Kate
Kramer, Marc G
Bacon, Allan R
Heine, Paul R
Richter, Daniel Deb
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Abstract
Reforestation of formerly cultivated land is widely understood to accumulate above- and belowground detrital organic matter pools, including soil organic matter. However, during 40 years of study of reforestation in the subtropical southeastern USA, repeated observations of above- and belowground carbon documented that significant gains in soil organic matter (SOM) in surface soils (0-7.5 cm) were offset by significant SOM losses in subsoils (35-60 cm). Here, we extended the observation period in this long-term experiment by an additional decade, and used soil fractionation and stable isotopes and radioisotopes to explore changes in soil organic carbon and soil nitrogen that accompanied nearly 50 years of loblolly pine secondary forest development. We observed that accumulations of mineral soil C and N from 0 to 7.5 cm were almost entirely due to accumulations of light-fraction SOM. Meanwhile, losses of soil C and N from mineral soils at 35 to 60 cm were from SOM associated with silt and clay-sized particles. Isotopic signatures showed relatively large accumulations of forest-derived carbon in surface soils, and little to no accumulation of forest-derived carbon in subsoils. We argue that the land use change from old field to secondary forest drove biogeochemical and hydrological changes throughout the soil profile that enhanced microbial activity and SOM decomposition in subsoils. However, when the pine stands aged and began to transition to mixed pines and hardwoods, demands on soil organic matter for nutrients to support aboveground growth eased due to pine mortality, and subsoil organic matter levels stabilized. This study emphasizes the importance of long-term experiments and deep measurements when characterizing soil C and N responses to land use change and the remarkable paucity of such long-term soil data deeper than 30 cm.
Type
Journal article
Subject
Carbon
Nitrogen
Soil
Biodiversity
South Carolina
Forests
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21249
Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1111/gcb.12715
Publication Info
Mobley, Megan L; Lajtha, Kate; Kramer, Marc G; Bacon, Allan R; Heine, Paul R; & Richter, Daniel Deb (2015). Surficial gains and subsoil losses of soil carbon and nitrogen during secondary forest development. Global change biology, 21(2). pp. 986-996. 10.1111/gcb.12715. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21249.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Scholars@Duke

Richter

Daniel D. Richter

Professor in the Division of Earth and Climate Science
Richter’s research and teaching links soils with ecosystems and the wider environment, most recently Earth scientists’ Critical Zone.  He focuses on how humanity is transforming Earth’s soils from natural to human-natural systems, specifically how land-uses alter soil processes and properties on time scales of decades, centuries, and millennia.  Richter's book, Understanding Soil Change (Cambridge University Press), co-authored with his former PhD
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