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Peatland vascular plant functional types affect dissolved organic matter chemistry

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Abstract

Background and aims

Northern peatlands are large repositories of carbon. Peatland vascular plant community composition has been functionally associated to a set of biogeochemical processes such as carbon cycling. Yet, we do not fully understand to what extent vascular plant functional types (PFTs) affect the quality of dissolved organic matter, and if there is any feedback on soil microbial activity.

Methods

Using a longer–term plant removal experiment in a boreo–nemoral peatland in Southern Sweden, we relate the dominance of different vascular plant functional types (i.e. ericoids and graminoids) to the chemistry of the dissolved organic matter (DOM) and microbial enzymatic activities (fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis, FDA).

Results

Our results show that PFTs modifies the composition of DOM moieties, with a decrease of low molecular weight organic compounds after vascular plant removal. The decrease of enzymatic activity by up to 68 % in the plant removal plots suggests a reduction in DOM mineralization in the absence of vascular plants.

Conclusions

Our results show that plant–derived low molecular organic compounds enhance peatland microbial activity, and suggest that an increase of vascular plant cover in response to climate change can potentially destabilize the OM in peatlands, leading to increased carbon losses.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Länsstyrelsen i Jönköpings län and the staff of the Store Mosse National Park, particularly Arne Andersson, Peter Mattiasson and Martha Wageus, for granting access to the peatland (permission 521-895-2011) and make use of the infrastructure of the park. Roy van Grunsven and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the scientific content. This work has been financed partially by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SPHAGNOL project; grant number 315280-14807).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Laboratory of Ecological Systems (ECOS), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Bâtiment GR, Station 2, -1015, Lausanne, CH, Switzerland

    Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Remy J. H. Albrecht, Samuel Hamard, Adrian Pulgarin, Luca Bragazza, Alexandre Buttler & Vincent EJ Jassey

  2. WSL – Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Site Lausanne, Station 2, Case postale 96, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Samuel Hamard, Adrian Pulgarin, Luca Bragazza, Alexandre Buttler & Vincent EJ Jassey

  3. Département de Géosciences, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, 24 Rue Lhomond, 5 75231, Paris CEDEX, France

    Samuel Hamard

  4. Department of Life Science and Biotechnologies, University of Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d’Este 32, I-44121, Ferrara, Italy

    Luca Bragazza

  5. University of Franche-Comté – CNRS, UMR 6249 Chrono-environnement, 16 route de Gray, F-25030, Besançon cedex, France

    Alexandre Buttler

Authors
  1. Bjorn J. M. Robroek
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  2. Remy J. H. Albrecht
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  3. Samuel Hamard
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  4. Adrian Pulgarin
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  5. Luca Bragazza
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  6. Alexandre Buttler
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  7. Vincent EJ Jassey
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Correspondence to Bjorn J. M. Robroek.

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Responsible Editor: Elizabeth M. Baggs.

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Robroek, B.J.M., Albrecht, R.J.H., Hamard, S. et al. Peatland vascular plant functional types affect dissolved organic matter chemistry. Plant Soil 407, 135–143 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2710-3

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