Publication Information
Title: Greater Soil Carbon Sequestration under Nitrogen-fixing Trees Compared with Eucalyptus Species.
Author: Resh,Sigrid C.; Binkley, Dan; Parrotta, John A.
Date: 2002
Source: Ecosystems 5 :217231
Description: Forests with nitrogen-fixing trees (Nfixers) typically accumulate more carbon (C) in soils than similar forests without Nfixing trees. This difference may develop from fundamentally different processes, with either greater accumulation of recently fixed C or reduced decomposition of older soil C. We compared the soil C pools under Nfixers with Eucalyptus (nonNfixers) at four tropical sites: two sites on Andisol soils in Hawaii and two sites on Vertisol and Entisol soils in Puerto Rico. Using stable
carbon isotope techniques, we tracked the loss of the old soil organic C from the previous C4 land use (SOC4) and the gain of new soil organic C from the C3, Nfixer, and nonNfixer plantations (SOC3). Soils beneath Nfixing trees sequestered 0.11 0.07 kg m2 y1 (mean one standard
error) of total soil organic carbon (SOCT) compared with no change under Eucalyptus (0.00 0.07 kg m2 y1; P 0.02). About 55% of the greater
SOCT sequestration under the Nfixers resulted from greater retention of old SOC4, and 45% resulted from greater accretion of new SOC3. Soil N
accretion under the Nfixers explained 62% of the variability of the greater retention of old SOC4 under the Nfixers. The greater retention of older soil C under Nfixing trees is a novel finding and may be important for strategies that use reforestation or afforestation to offset C emissions.
Keywords: Key words: carbon accretion; carbon retention; carbon sequestration; Eucalyptus; Hawaii; isotopes; nitrogen-fixing trees; Puerto Rico; soil organic carbon.
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Citation
Resh,Sigrid C.; Binkley, Dan; Parrotta, John A. 2002. Greater Soil Carbon Sequestration under Nitrogen-fixing Trees Compared with Eucalyptus Species.. Ecosystems 5 :217231.
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