TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term agricultural management maximizing hay production can significantly reduce belowground C storage
AU - Sochorová, Lenka
AU - Jansa, Jan
AU - Verbruggen, Erik
AU - Hejcman, Michal
AU - Schellberg, Jürgen
AU - Kiers, E. Toby
AU - Johnson, Nancy Collins
N1 - Funding Information:
LS was supported by a grant IGA 20134275 and 20144219 from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague . JJ was supported by the Fellowship J.E. Purkyně , Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports ( LK11224 ), and the long-term development program RVO 61388971 . EV was funded by NWO and Freie Universität Berlin . ETK was funded by the ERC starting grant and NWO (Vidi and Meervoud grants). MH was supported by project GAČR 505/12/1390. NCJ was funded through a research fellowship from the Fulbright Commission of the Czech Republic , the United States National Science Foundation ( DEB-0842327 ), and the United States Department of Agriculture ( NIFA 2011-67009-30002 ). The maintenance of the Rengen Grassland Experiment was partly funded by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bonn, Germany . JS also acknowledges funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) , project number SCHE 549/2-1 . Constructive comments by two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V..
PY - 2016/3/15
Y1 - 2016/3/15
N2 - Liming and fertilization of grasslands have been used for centuries to sustain hay production. Besides improving hay yields, these practices induce compositional shifts in plant and soil microbial communities, including symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. However, in spite of increasing interest in soil carbon (C) sequestration to offset anthropogenic CO2 emissions, little is known about the long-term effects of these agronomic interventions on soil C stocks. We examined how plants, AM fungi, and soil C respond to more than seven decades of annual applications of lime, mineral nitrogen (N), and mineral phosphorus (P) to test the hypotheses that (1) management practices increasing aboveground plant production decrease C allocation to roots, AM fungi and the soil; and (2) the relative availability of N and P predicts belowground C allocation in a consistent manner. Our study was conducted at the Rengen Grassland Experiment, established in 1941. Lime combined with N increased hay yields and promoted development of AM fungal hyphae in soil, while reducing relative C allocation to roots. Simultaneous enrichment of soil with lime, N, and P further boosted hay production, promoted grasses and suppressed other plant functional groups. This treatment also decreased soil organic C and strongly suppressed AM fungi in the soil, although the response to P varied among different AM fungal taxa. Our results indicate that agricultural management practices aimed at maximization of hay production may, in the long run, significantly (-20%) reduce belowground C storage. This is a great concern with respect to the intended use of grasslands as anthropogenic CO2 sinks because the fertilization-induced decrease in soil C stocks can partly or fully negate the C sequestration potential of the grassland ecosystems as a whole.
AB - Liming and fertilization of grasslands have been used for centuries to sustain hay production. Besides improving hay yields, these practices induce compositional shifts in plant and soil microbial communities, including symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. However, in spite of increasing interest in soil carbon (C) sequestration to offset anthropogenic CO2 emissions, little is known about the long-term effects of these agronomic interventions on soil C stocks. We examined how plants, AM fungi, and soil C respond to more than seven decades of annual applications of lime, mineral nitrogen (N), and mineral phosphorus (P) to test the hypotheses that (1) management practices increasing aboveground plant production decrease C allocation to roots, AM fungi and the soil; and (2) the relative availability of N and P predicts belowground C allocation in a consistent manner. Our study was conducted at the Rengen Grassland Experiment, established in 1941. Lime combined with N increased hay yields and promoted development of AM fungal hyphae in soil, while reducing relative C allocation to roots. Simultaneous enrichment of soil with lime, N, and P further boosted hay production, promoted grasses and suppressed other plant functional groups. This treatment also decreased soil organic C and strongly suppressed AM fungi in the soil, although the response to P varied among different AM fungal taxa. Our results indicate that agricultural management practices aimed at maximization of hay production may, in the long run, significantly (-20%) reduce belowground C storage. This is a great concern with respect to the intended use of grasslands as anthropogenic CO2 sinks because the fertilization-induced decrease in soil C stocks can partly or fully negate the C sequestration potential of the grassland ecosystems as a whole.
KW - Arbuscular mycorrhiza
KW - Lime
KW - Long term ecological research
KW - Nitrogen
KW - Phosphorus
KW - Soil carbon
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U2 - 10.1016/j.agee.2015.12.026
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2015.12.026
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84955263402
SN - 0167-8809
VL - 220
SP - 104
EP - 114
JO - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
JF - Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment
ER -