Environmental Studies and Forestry

Ecosystem productivity has a stronger influence than soil age on surface soil carbon storage across global biomes

C. Plaza, P. García-palacios, et al.

This groundbreaking study by César Plaza, Pablo García-Palacios, and their colleagues reveals that ecosystem productivity plays a more critical role than soil age in determining soil carbon fractions across diverse global ecosystems. The findings stress the need to protect productive ecosystems to maintain vital soil carbon reserves.

00:00

Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

This study investigated the relative importance of ecosystem type and soil age on soil carbon fractions across 16 global chronosequences. The results showed that ecosystem type, specifically productivity, is a stronger driver of carbon fraction proportions than soil age (spanning centuries to millennia). Highly productive tropical and temperate forests had more unprotected carbon, vulnerable to productivity decline and warming. Conversely, less productive ecosystems had mineral-protected carbon, less responsive to warming. The findings highlight the importance of preserving ecosystem productivity for soil carbon protection.

Publisher

Communications Earth & Environment

Published On

Oct 07, 2022

Authors

César Plaza, Pablo García-Palacios, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Jesús Barquero, Felipe Bastida, G. Kenny Png, Ana Rey, Richard D. Bardgett, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

Related Publications

Explore these studies to deepen your understanding of the subject.

Environmental Studies and Forestry

The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes

M. Delgado-baquerizo, P. B. Reich, et al.

Earth Sciences

Soil microbial diversity-biomass relationships are driven by soil carbon content across global biomes

F. Bastida, D. J. Eldridge, et al.

Business

Do global innovation networks influence the status of global value chains? Based on a patent cooperation network perspective

S. Xu, G. Lian, et al.

Economics

The mining industry as a net beneficiary of a global tax on carbon emissions

B. Cox, S. Innis, et al.

Listen, Learn & Level Up

Over 10,000 hours of research content in 25+ fields, available in 12+ languages.

No more digging through PDFs, just hit play and absorb the world's latest research in your language, on your time.

listen to research audio papers with researchbunny