Research Portal

Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Standard Standard

Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage. / Lange, Markus; Eisenhauer, Nico; Sierra, Carlos A. et al.
In: Nature Communications, Vol. 6, No. 1, 6707, 07.04.2015.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

HarvardHarvard

Lange, M, Eisenhauer, N, Sierra, CA, Bessler, H, Engels, C, Griffiths, RI, Mellado-Vázquez, PG, Malik, AA, Roy, J, Scheu, S, Steinbeiss, S, Thomson, BC, Trumbore, SE & Gleixner, G 2015, 'Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage', Nature Communications, vol. 6, no. 1, 6707. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7707

APA

Lange, M., Eisenhauer, N., Sierra, C. A., Bessler, H., Engels, C., Griffiths, R. I., Mellado-Vázquez, P. G., Malik, A. A., Roy, J., Scheu, S., Steinbeiss, S., Thomson, B. C., Trumbore, S. E., & Gleixner, G. (2015). Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage. Nature Communications, 6(1), Article 6707. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7707

CBE

Lange M, Eisenhauer N, Sierra CA, Bessler H, Engels C, Griffiths RI, Mellado-Vázquez PG, Malik AA, Roy J, Scheu S, et al. 2015. Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage. Nature Communications. 6(1):Article 6707. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7707

MLA

Lange, Markus et al. "Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage". Nature Communications. 2015. 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7707

VancouverVancouver

Lange M, Eisenhauer N, Sierra CA, Bessler H, Engels C, Griffiths RI et al. Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage. Nature Communications. 2015 Apr 7;6(1):6707. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7707

Author

Lange, Markus ; Eisenhauer, Nico ; Sierra, Carlos A. et al. / Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage. In: Nature Communications. 2015 ; Vol. 6, No. 1.

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Plant diversity increases soil microbial activity and soil carbon storage

AU - Lange, Markus

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

AU - Sierra, Carlos A.

AU - Bessler, Holger

AU - Engels, Christoph

AU - Griffiths, Robert I.

AU - Mellado-Vázquez, Perla G.

AU - Malik, Ashish A.

AU - Roy, Jacques

AU - Scheu, Stefan

AU - Steinbeiss, Sibylle

AU - Thomson, Bruce C.

AU - Trumbore, Susan E.

AU - Gleixner, Gerd

PY - 2015/4/7

Y1 - 2015/4/7

N2 - Plant diversity strongly influences ecosystem functions and services, such as soil carbon storage. However, the mechanisms underlying the positive plant diversity effects on soil carbon storage are poorly understood. We explored this relationship using long-term data from a grassland biodiversity experiment (The Jena Experiment) and radiocarbon (14C) modelling. Here we show that higher plant diversity increases rhizosphere carbon inputs into the microbial community resulting in both increased microbial activity and carbon storage. Increases in soil carbon were related to the enhanced accumulation of recently fixed carbon in high-diversity plots, while plant diversity had less pronounced effects on the decomposition rate of existing carbon. The present study shows that elevated carbon storage at high plant diversity is a direct function of the soil microbial community, indicating that the increase in carbon storage is mainly limited by the integration of new carbon into soil and less by the decomposition of existing soil carbon.

AB - Plant diversity strongly influences ecosystem functions and services, such as soil carbon storage. However, the mechanisms underlying the positive plant diversity effects on soil carbon storage are poorly understood. We explored this relationship using long-term data from a grassland biodiversity experiment (The Jena Experiment) and radiocarbon (14C) modelling. Here we show that higher plant diversity increases rhizosphere carbon inputs into the microbial community resulting in both increased microbial activity and carbon storage. Increases in soil carbon were related to the enhanced accumulation of recently fixed carbon in high-diversity plots, while plant diversity had less pronounced effects on the decomposition rate of existing carbon. The present study shows that elevated carbon storage at high plant diversity is a direct function of the soil microbial community, indicating that the increase in carbon storage is mainly limited by the integration of new carbon into soil and less by the decomposition of existing soil carbon.

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms7707

DO - 10.1038/ncomms7707

M3 - Article

VL - 6

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 6707

ER -