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Plant community changes after land abandonment control CO2 balance in a dry environment

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Abstract

Aims

Human activities can dramatically alter natural plant communities which, after disturbance cessation, undergo secondary succession. In arid environments plant succession is quite slow, and its link to the carbon (C) cycle is not well known. We assessed changes in C balance on a semiarid plant community along a chronosequence spanning ca. 100 years after land abandonment in an arid environment in SE Spain to examine temporal changes in C following human disturbance.

Methods

We selected 5 individuals of the dominant plant species along five plant community stages differing in the time since land abandonment occurred, and we used a closed-chamber infrared gas analyzer method to estimate the contribution of whole plants and bare soil to community C exchange. We estimated CO2 fluxes for each plant community stage and calculated temporal differences along the chronosequence.

Results

Plant community composition and plant cover changed throughout the chronosequence. Carbon balance was related to changes in plant photosynthesis and plant and soil respiration along the chronosequence. Overall, community C exchange shifted from source to sink as plant colonization progressed. It took 65 years for the system to recover the equivalent C sink capacity of the undisturbed site.

Conclusions

Recovery of arid plant communities after land abandonment may enhance long-term C sequestration and significantly contribute to C balance at the global level.

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Abbreviations

C:

Carbon

NEE:

Net ecosystem exchange

PNE:

Plant net exchange

PR:

Plant respiration

PH:

Plant photosynthesis

PAR:

Photosynthetic active radiation

SR:

Soil respiration

GR:

Gross respiration

GPP:

Gross primary production

SOC:

Soil organic carbon

SE:

Standard Error

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Acknowledgements

We thank Javier Toledo for field and technical support, Fernando Casanoves for statistical advice and Sonia Chamizo and Michel O’Brien for comments on an early draft of this manuscript. This work was funded by MINECO (grant CGL2014-59010-R). CE received a FPI doctoral fellowship (BES2011-044322) and CA received a “Ramón y Cajal” research contract (RYC-2012-12277) from the Spanish Government.

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Author notes

  1. Yudi M. Lozano

    Present address: Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology, Freie Universität Berlin, D-14195, Berlin, Germany

  2. Yudi M. Lozano

    Present address: Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195, Berlin, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, E-04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain

    Carme Estruch, Yudi M. Lozano, Cristina Armas & Francisco I. Pugnaire

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  1. Carme Estruch
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Contributions

CE, YML and FIP designed the study. CE performed research. CE, CA and YML analyzed data. CE wrote the paper with significant improvements from all other authors.

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Correspondence to Carme Estruch.

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Estruch, C., Lozano, Y.M., Armas, C. et al. Plant community changes after land abandonment control CO2 balance in a dry environment. Plant Soil 425, 253–264 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3581-1

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