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Shrub encroachment increases soil organic and inorganic carbon in coastal wetlands

  • Soils, Sec 1 • Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Temperate herbaceous wetlands have been widely experiencing shrub encroachment due to global climate change and human activities. We attempted to investigate the effect size and pathway of shrub-induced C sequestration in coastal wetlands.

Methods

In the shrub-encroached wetlands of the Yellow River Delta, China, two transects were selected randomly, including two landscapes (flat wetland, FW, and tidal ditch wetland, TDW). Based on the distances to shrub Tamarix chinensis, four soil sampling sites (base, mid, edge, and between) for each shrub were determined. We analyzed spatial patterns of soil organic and inorganic carbon (SOC and SIC) and total nitrogen contents (TN) and stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N), evaluated the direct and indirect effects of shrub on SOC and SIC by stepwise regression and structural equation modeling (SEM), and then determined the coupled relationships between soil C and N.

Results and discussion

Shrub encroachment increased significantly both SOC (by 67.18%) and SIC (by 9.93%) contents, with higher SOC increase in FW whereas higher SIC increase in TDW. TN had the strongest positive effect on soil carbon (0.797 for SOC and 0.949 for SIC), and that C/N ratio had the second strongest positive influence on SOC (0.716) but negative influence on SIC (−0.567). This suggested a superimposed effect from both TN and C/N ratio on SOC and an offset effect on SIC. Additionally, TN had a greater effect on SOC in FW while clay and silt had a higher effect on SIC in TDW. Both δ13C and δ15N values decreased simultaneously (−0.69‰ and −0.16‰) in TDW while δ13C decreased greatly (−2.36‰) but δ15N increased greatly (0.39‰) in FW. It means that a coupled relationship existed between soil C and N cycling in the former but a decoupled relationship in the latter. Finally, an interaction mechanism was proposed, where the coupled and decoupled relationships between soil C and N was one likely factor which drove higher SIC accumulation in better wetland but higher SOC sequestration in poor one.

Conclusions

The presence of shrubs increased SOC and SIC in coastal wetlands with significant landscape effects, resulted in tidal ditch wetland (better wetland) being potential sinks of inorganic carbon, and in flat wetland (nutrient-poor wetland) being significant sinks of organic carbon. The indirect effect of shrub on soil carbon was dominant, which was driven mainly by increasing TN and altering coupled relationships between soil C and N.

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Data availability

The data used in this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31870468 and 31670471). The authors appreciate Prof. Wenju Zhang from Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who helped us to revise the manuscript critically. We also thank all reviewers for their time and efforts in reviewing this manuscript, whose thoughtful comments greatly improved our final product.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, Shandong, China

    Shiwei Zhou & Jiaming Kong

  2. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, Shandong, China

    Ling Meng, Yuru Wu & Xiaoli Bi

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  1. Shiwei Zhou
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  2. Ling Meng
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  4. Jiaming Kong
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Correspondence to Xiaoli Bi.

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Highlights

• Shrub encroachment increased SOC and SIC in the wetlands of the Yellow River Delta;

• Indirect effects of shrub encroachment on soil carbon are stronger than direct effect;

• Shrub-induced soil nitrogen is potentially main factor leading to the increases in SOC and SIC;

• Shrub encroachment has significant scale effects.

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Zhou, S., Meng, L., Wu, Y. et al. Shrub encroachment increases soil organic and inorganic carbon in coastal wetlands. J Soils Sediments 23, 2980–2993 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03522-x

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