Title
Connecting Soil Organic Carbon and Root Biomass with Land-Use and Vegetation in Temperate Grassland
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2014
Journal or Book Title
Scientific World Journal
Volume
2014
First Page
1
Last Page
9
DOI
10.1155/2014/487563
Abstract
Soils containmuch of Earth’s terrestrial organic carbon but are sensitive to land-use. Rangelands are important to carbon dynamics and are among ecosystems most widely impacted by land-use. While common practices like grazing, fire, and tillage affect soil properties directly related to soil carbon dynamics, their magnitude and direction of change vary among ecosystems and with intensity of disturbance. We describe variability in soil organic carbon (SOC) and root biomass—sampled from 0–170 cm and 0– 100 cm, respectively—in terms of soil properties, land-use history, current management, and plant community composition using linear regression and multivariate ordination. Despite consistency in average values of SOC and root biomass between our data and data from rangelands worldwide, broad ranges in root biomass and SOC in our data suggest these variables are affected by other site-specific factors. Pastures with a recent history of severe grazing had reduced root biomass and greater bulk density. Ordination suggests greater exotic species richness is associated with lower root biomass but the relationship was not apparent when an invasive species of management concern was specifically tested.We discuss how unexplained variability in belowground properties can complicate measurement and prediction of ecosystem processes such as carbon sequestration.
Rights
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Copyright Owner
Devan Allen McGranahan, et al.
Copyright Date
2014
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
McGranahan, Devan Allen; Daigh, Aaron Lee; Veenstra, Jessica J.; Engle, David M.; Miller, James R.; and Debinski, Diane M., "Connecting Soil Organic Carbon and Root Biomass with Land-Use and Vegetation in Temperate Grassland" (2014). Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Publications. 24.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/eeob_ag_pubs/24
Included in
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons
Comments
This article is from The Scientific World Journal 2014 (2014): Art. ID 487563, doi:10.1155/2014/487563. Posted with permission.