Abstract
Background and aims
Afforestation and thinning management are effective ways to mitigate global warming. Soil carbon reconstruction mechanisms can be effectively explored by linking soil aggregates and isotopic 13C.
Methods
Soil samples were collected from agricultural land (AL) and larch plantations (established in 1965 and thinned in1995, UT: 2500 tree‧ha−1, MT: 1867 tree‧ha−1, and ST: 1283 tree‧ha−1). The soil was separated into three aggregate sizes (LMAC: > 2 mm, SMAC: 2–0.25 mm, MIC: 0.25–0.053), minerals associated with organic matter (MAOM: < 0.053 mm), and carbon fractions within macroaggregates.
Results
We found that afforestation on agricultural land significantly increased the mean weight diameter (MWD). However, intensifying thinning decreased MWD by increasing SMAC. Moreover, after afforestation, the carbon concentration in soil aggregates and MAOM significantly decreased, and the carbon stability of macroaggregates weakened but could be strengthened after thinning. Thinning decreased the C/N in the soil aggregates and MAOM when no change in carbon concentration. The effect of thinning intensity on C/N was obvious with decreasing of particle size. The δ13C, mainly controlled by soil aggregates, significantly decreased in each soil aggregate after afforestation but increased after thinning. Additionally, the carbon concentrations, C/N and δ13C of small-size particles (< 0.25 mm) and the distribution of SMAC are important for SOC, C/N, CO2 fluxes and δ13C in bulk soil.
Conclusion
We conclude that soil aggregate distribution is conducive to soil carbon renewal, suggesting that increasing thinning intensity is beneficial for accumulating older carbon and acquiring nitrogen in more stable fractions.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- LMAC:
-
Large macroaggregate
- SMAC:
-
Small macroaggregate
- MIC:
-
Microaggregate
- MAOM:
-
Minerals associated with organic matter
- cPOM:
-
Coarse organic matter within macroaggregate
- mM:
-
Microaggregate within macroaggregate
- scM:
-
Silt‐clay sized and minerals within macroaggregate
- C:
-
Carbon
- C/N:
-
Carbon-nitrogen ratio
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41430639, 31800413, 42171051), The authors thank the Changbai Mountains Forest Ecosystem Research Station for support.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41430639, 31800413, 42171051).
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Yue Zhang contributed to the study conception and design and data collection and analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Shicong Geng critically revised the previous and final manuscript. Changcheng Mu collected data. Junhui Zhang read and commented on the final manuscript.
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Zhang, Y., Geng, S., Mu, C. et al. Evaluating soil carbon stability by combining δ13C and soil aggregates after afforestation on agricultural land and thinning management. Plant Soil 487, 567–586 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-05956-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-05956-1