Bonner, Mark and Allen, Diane E. and Brackin, Richard and Smith, Tim E. and Lewis, Tom and Shoo, Luke P. and Schmidt, Susanne
(2020).
Tropical Rainforest Restoration Plantations Are Slow to Restore the Soil Biological and Organic Carbon Characteristics of Old Growth Rainforest.
Microbial Ecology. 79
, 432-442
[Journal article]
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Abstract
Widespread and continuing losses of tropical old-growth forests imperil global biodiversity and alter global carbon (C) cycling. Soil organic carbon (SOC) typically declines with land use change from old-growth forest, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Ecological restoration plantations offer an established means of restoring aboveground biomass, structure and diversity of forests, but their capacity to recover the soil microbial community and SOC is unknown due to limited empirical data and consensus on the mechanisms of SOC formation. Here, we examine soil microbial community response and SOC in tropical rainforest restoration plantings, comparing them with the original old-growth forest and the previous land use (pasture). Two decades post-reforestation, we found a statistically significant but small increase in SOC in the fast-turnover particulate C fraction. Although the delta C-13 signature of the more stable humic organic C (HOC) fraction indicated a significant compositional turnover in reforested soils, from C-4 pasture-derived C to C-3 forest-derived C, this did not translate to HOC gains compared with the pasture baseline. Matched old-growth rainforest soils had significantly higher concentrations of HOC than pasture and reforested soils, and soil microbial enzyme efficiency and the ratio of gram-positive to gram-negative bacteria followed the same pattern. Restoration plantings had unique soil microbial composition and function, distinct from baseline pasture but not converging on target old growth rainforest within the examined timeframe. Our results suggest that tropical reforestation efforts could benefit from management interventions beyond re-establishing tree cover to realize the ambition of early recovery of soil microbial communities and stable SOC.
Authors/Creators: | Bonner, Mark and Allen, Diane E. and Brackin, Richard and Smith, Tim E. and Lewis, Tom and Shoo, Luke P. and Schmidt, Susanne | ||||||
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Title: | Tropical Rainforest Restoration Plantations Are Slow to Restore the Soil Biological and Organic Carbon Characteristics of Old Growth Rainforest | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 79 | ||||||
Page range: | 432-442 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 11 | ||||||
Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
ISSN: | 0095-3628 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Journal article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Soil Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Forest Science | ||||||
Keywords: | Mixed-species plantations, Soil fungi and bacteria, Soil carbon sequestration, Microbial function and composition, Microbial ecology, Land use change | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-104872 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-104872 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 16780 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (S) > Dept. of Forest Ecology and Management | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 26 Mar 2020 14:09 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 06 Sep 2020 10:01 |
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