Precipitation change affects forest soil carbon inputs and pools: A global meta-analysis

Xu，Shan1,2; Wang，Junjian2; Sayer，Emma J.3,4; Lam，Shu Kee5; Lai，Derrick Y.F.1,6

2024-01-15

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168171

Science of the Total Environment   影响因子和分区

0048-9697

1879-1026

The impacts of precipitation change on forest carbon (C) storage will have global consequences, as forests play a major role in sequestering anthropogenic CO. Although forest soils are one of the largest terrestrial C pools, there is great uncertainty around the response of forest soil organic carbon (SOC) to precipitation change, which limits our ability to predict future forest C storage. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the effect of drought and irrigation experiments on SOC pools, plant C inputs and the soil environment based on 161 studies across 139 forest sites worldwide. Overall, forest SOC content was not affected by precipitation change, but both drought and irrigation altered plant C inputs and soil properties associated with SOC formation and storage. Drought may enhance SOC stability by altering soil aggregate fractions, but the effect of irrigation on SOC fractions remains unexplored. The apparent insensitivity of SOC to precipitation change can be explained by the short duration of most experiments and by biome-specific responses of C inputs and pools to drought or irrigation. Importantly, we demonstrate that SOC content is more likely to decline under irrigation at drier temperate sites, but that dry forests are currently underrepresented across experimental studies. Thus, our meta-analysis advances research into the impacts of precipitation change in forests by revealing important differences among forest biomes, which are likely linked to plant adaptation to extant conditions. We further demonstrate important knowledge gaps around how precipitation change will affect SOC stability, as too few studies currently consider distinct soil C pools. To accurately predict future SOC storage in forests, there is an urgent need for coordinated studies of different soil C pools and fractions across existing sites, as well as new experiments in underrepresented forest types.

Drought Forest soil organic carbon Irrigation Plant carbon inputs Precipitation change SOC fractions

SCI ; EI

英语

其他

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

2-s2.0-85176088588

Scopus

1.Department of Geography and Resource Management,The Chinese University of Hong Kong,New Territories,Shatin,Hong Kong
2.Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control,School of Environmental Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
3.Lancaster Environment Centre,Lancaster University,Lancaster,LA1 4YQ,United Kingdom
4.Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,Ancon,P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Panama,Panama
5.School of Agriculture and Food,University of Melbourne,Melbourne,Australia
6.Centre for Environmental Policy and Resource Management,The Chinese University of Hong Kong,New Territories,Shatin,Hong Kong

Xu，Shan,Wang，Junjian,Sayer，Emma J.,et al. Precipitation change affects forest soil carbon inputs and pools: A global meta-analysis[J]. Science of the Total Environment,2024,908.

Xu，Shan,Wang，Junjian,Sayer，Emma J.,Lam，Shu Kee,&Lai，Derrick Y.F..(2024).Precipitation change affects forest soil carbon inputs and pools: A global meta-analysis.Science of the Total Environment,908.

Xu，Shan,et al."Precipitation change affects forest soil carbon inputs and pools: A global meta-analysis".Science of the Total Environment 908(2024).