Abstract
Aims
Tea plantation soils have great potential for carbon (C) sequestration because of the perennial nature of tea plants. Long-term tea plantations can lead to soil acidification. However, how the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and its molecular composition respond to tea plantation establishment remains unclear.
Methods
Amino sugars and lignin phenols were used as biomarkers for microbial necromass and plant lignin components to investigate the changes in their distribution to SOC across a tea plantation chronosequence (1-, 7-, 16-, 25-, and 42-year old), thus providing a holistic perspective of SOC formation and stabilization.
Results
Long-term tea plantation increased SOC content and the levels of amino sugars and lignin phenols, but reduced microbial biomass C despite an increase in dissolved organic C. Comparatively, the contribution of microbial-derived C to SOC was lower than that of plant-derived C. Despite the increased levels of amino sugars over the time-course, the proportion of bacterial-derived C in the SOC decreased, reflecting diluted contributions of bacterial residues to the SOC pool. Further, the decrease in soil pH and microbial biomass C over time resulted in shifts in the contribution of bacterial and fungal residues the pool, with an increase in the contribution of fungal residues.
Conclusions
These findings provide new insights into changes in SOC accumulation in long-term tea plantations, highlighting an increase in soil C sequestration associated primarily by the presence of lignin phenols. This build up is affected by abiotic (physical and chemical protection) and biotic factors including increased dominance of fungal residues inputs.
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Data availability
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary information.
Change history
25 May 2024
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06755-y
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Acknowledgements
This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1700800) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42207361, 42377325, 42322102 and 42271058). Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20220093). We would like to thank Dr. Xiaodong Song from Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences to provide suggestions during the manuscript drafting.
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Tang, Q., Li, W., Dai, W. et al. Patterns and determinants of microbial- and plant-derived carbon contributions to soil organic carbon in tea plantation chronosequence. Plant Soil (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06712-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-024-06712-9