Faster accumulation and greater contribution of glomalin to the soil organic carbon pool than amino sugars do under tropical coastal forest restoration. Issue 2 (17th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Tengteng; Yuan, Ye; Mou, Zhijian; Li, Yue; Kuang, Luhui; Zhang, Jing; Wu, Wenjia; Wang, Faming; Wang, Jun; Lambers, Hans; Sardans, Jordi; Peñuelas, Josep; Ren, Hai; Liu, Zhanfeng
• Is Part Of: Global change biology. Volume 29:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 533
• Page End: 546
• Publication Date: 2022-10-17
• Subjects: afforestation -- amino sugars -- glomalin‐related soil protein -- soil aggregates -- soil microbial community -- tropical coastal terrace; Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Troposphere -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Biodiversity conservation -- Periodicals; Eutrophication -- Periodicals; 551.5
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16467
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-1013

Abstract

Abstract: Microbial metabolic products play a vital role in maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality, such as soil physical structure and soil organic carbon (SOC) preservation. Afforestation is an effective strategy to restore degraded land. Glomalin‐related soil proteins (GRSP) and amino sugars are regarded as stable microbial‐derived C, and their distribution within soil aggregates affects soil structure stability and SOC sequestration. However, the information about how afforestation affects the microbial contribution to SOC pools within aggregates is poorly understood. We assessed the accumulation and contribution of GRSP and amino sugars within soil aggregates along a restoration chronosequence (Bare land, Eucalyptus exserta plantation, native species mixed forest, and native forest) in tropical coastal terraces. Amino sugars and GRSP concentrations increased, whereas their contributions to the SOC pool decreased along the restoration chronosequence. Although microaggregates harbored greater microbial abundances, amino sugars and GRSP concentrations were not significantly affected by aggregate sizes. Interestingly, the contributions of amino sugars and GRSP to SOC pools decreased with decreasing aggregate size which might be associated with increased accumulation of plant‐derived C. However, the relative change rate of GRSP was consistently greater in all restoration chronosequences than that of amino sugars. The accumulation of GRSP and amino sugars in SOC pools was closely associated with the dynamics of soil fertility and the microbial community. Our findings suggest that GRSP accumulates faster and contributes more to SOC pools during restoration than amino sugars did which was greatly affected by aggregate sizes. Afforestation substantially enhanced soil quality with native forest comprising species sequestering more SOC than the monoculture plantation did. Such information is invaluable for improving our mechanistic understanding of microbial control over SOC preservation during degraded ecosystem restoration. Our findings also show that plantations using arbuscular mycorrhizal plants can be an effective practice to sequester more soil carbon during restoration. Abstract : Afforestation of bare land greatly enhanced the accumulation of glomalin‐related soil proteins (GRSP) and amino sugars, but it decreased their contribution to soil organic carbon (SOC). The faster accumulation and greater contribution of GRSP to SOC compared with those of amino sugars highlight the important role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in mediating soil C cycling during forest restoration, despite the proportional contribution of GRSP and amino sugars to the SOC pool diminishing with forest restoration.