Carbon cycle
Plant diversity builds soil carbon via microbes
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Higher plant species richness raises soil organic carbon by boosting microbial growth, biomass, and fungal necromass, not carbon-use efficiency.
Key findings
SOC rose 29% from monocultures to 60-species plots. Microbial biomass rose 58% and growth about twofold while respiration rose only 1.5-fold. Carbon-use efficiency did not change; SOC tracked microbial biomass more than root carbon.
Methodology
Authors sampled 85 grassland plots in the Jena Experiment (1–60 plant species) and measured soil organic carbon, microbial biomass, growth, respiration, carbon-use efficiency, and fungal versus bacterial necromass, then linked those pools with path analysis.
Limitations
A single September 2015 snapshot in one German grassland cannot prove that the same microbial path operates in forests, croplands, or under future climate; CUE was statistically unchanged rather than shown to be irrelevant in all soils.
How this study connects
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