Positive effects of legumes on soil organic carbon stocks disappear at high legume proportions across natural grasslands in the Pyrenees

Rodríguez, Antonio; Canals Tresserras, Rosa María; Sebastià, M.T.

Publication:
Positive effects of legumes on soil organic carbon stocks disappear at high legume proportions across natural grasslands in the Pyrenees

dc.contributor.author	Rodríguez, Antonio
dc.contributor.author	Canals Tresserras, Rosa María
dc.contributor.author	Sebastià, M.T.
dc.contributor.department	Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD	en
dc.date.accessioned	2022-01-17T08:58:19Z
dc.date.available	2022-01-17T08:58:19Z
dc.date.issued	2021
dc.description.abstract	Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, making it crucial for climate change mitigation. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is suggested to depend on biodiversity components, but much evidence comes from diversity-function experiments. To disentangle the relationships of plant guild diversity with SOC storage (kg m−2) at broad spatial scales, we applied diversity-interaction models to a regional grassland database (n = 96) including wide environmental conditions and management regimes. The questions were: (1) Are the effects of plant guilds on SOC stocks in natural grasslands consistent with those found in experimental systems? (2) Are plant guild effects on SOC stocks independent of each other or do they show interactive—synergistic or antagonistic—effects? (3) Do environmental variables, including abiotic and management, modify guild effects on SOC stocks? Among our most novel results we found, legume effects on grassland SOC vary depending on legume proportion consistently across broad spatial scales. SOC increased with legume proportion up to 7–17%, then decreased. Additionally, these effects were strengthened when grasses and forbs were codominant. Grazing intensity modulated grass proportion effects on SOC, being maximum at relatively high intensities. Interpreting our results in terms of existing contrasted ecological theories, we confirmed at broad spatial scales and under wide-ranging environmental conditions the positive effects of plant guild diversity on SOC, and we showed how legumes exert a keystone effect on SOC in natural grasslands, probably related to their ability to fix inorganic N. Niche complementarity effects were illustrated when codominance of forbs and grasses at optimum legume proportions boosted SOC storage, whereas grass dominance increased SOC stocks at medium–high grazing intensities. These findings can facilitate the preparation of regional and local strategies to ameliorate the soil capacity to absorb carbon.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Research in this paper is based on the PASTUS database, compiled from different funding sources over time, the most relevant being: the EU Interreg III- A Programme (I3A- 4- 147- E) and the POCTEFA Programme/Interreg IV- A (FLUXPYR, EFA 34/08); the Spanish Science Foundation FECYT- MICINN (CARBOPAS: REN2002- 04300- C02- 01; CARBOAGROPAS: CGL2006- 13555- C03- 03 and CAPAS: CGL2010- 22378- C03- 01); the Foundation Catalunya- La Pedrera; and the Spanish Institute of Agronomical Research INIA (CARBOCLUS: SUM2006- 00029- C02- 0). This work was funded by the Spanish Science Foundation FECYT- MINECO (BIOGEI: CGL2013-49142-C2-1-R and IMAGINE: CGL2017-85490-R) and the University of Lleida (PhD Fellowship to AR). This research article has received a grant for its linguistic revision from the Language Institute of the University of Lleida (2021 call).	en
dc.format.extent	16 p.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/msword	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1007/s10021-021-00695-9
dc.identifier.issn	1432-9840
dc.identifier.uri	https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/41770
dc.language.iso	eng	en
dc.publisher	Springer Nature	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Ecosystems (2021)	en
dc.relation.projectID	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//CGL2013-49142-C2-1-R/ES/	en
dc.relation.projectID	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/CGL2017-85490-R/ES/	en
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-021-00695-9
dc.rights	© The Author(s) 2021, corrected publication 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.	en
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.rights.accessRights	Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia	es
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Climate change	en
dc.subject	Forbs	en
dc.subject	Grasses	en
dc.subject	Management	en
dc.subject	Natural grasslands	en
dc.subject	Plant guilds	en
dc.subject	Soil organic carbon	en
dc.title	Positive effects of legumes on soil organic carbon stocks disappear at high legume proportions across natural grasslands in the Pyrenees	en
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article	en
dc.type	Artículo / Artikulua	es
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion	en
dc.type.version	Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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