Soil carbon pools and fluxes following the regreening of a mining and smelting degraded landscape.

Autor: Levasseur PA; Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada. Electronic address: patricklevasseur@trentu.ca., Aherne J; Trent School of the Environment, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada., Basiliko N; Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Rd., Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada., Emilson EJS; Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, 1219 Queen St. East, Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 2E5, Canada., Preston MD; Faculty of Environment, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada., Sager EPS; Trent School of the Environment, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada., Watmough SA; Trent School of the Environment, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2023 Dec 15; Vol. 904, pp. 166734. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Sep 04.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166734
Abstrakt: Increasing forest cover by regreening mining and smelting degraded landscapes provides an opportunity for global carbon (C) sequestration, however, the reported effects of regreening on soil C processes are mixed. One of the world's largest regreening programs is in the City of Greater Sudbury, Canada and has been ongoing since 1978. Prior to regreening, soils in the City of Greater Sudbury area were highly eroded, acidic, rich in metals, and poor in nutrients. This study used a chronosequence approach to investigate how forest soil C pools and fluxes have changed with stand age in highly "eroded" sites with minimal soil cover (n = 6) and "stable" sites covered by soil (n = 6). Encouragingly, the relationship between stand age and soil C processes (litterfall, litter decomposition, soil respiration, fine root growth) at both stable and eroded sites were comparable to observations reported for jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) plantations that have not been subject to over a century of industrial impacts. There was a strong "home-field advantage" for local decomposers, where litter decomposition rates were higher using a site-specific pine litter compared with a common pine litter. Higher soil respiration at eroded sites was linked to higher soil temperature, likely because of a more open tree canopy. Forest floor C pools increased with stand age while mineral soil C and aggregate C concentrations decreased with stand age. This loss of soil C is small relative to the substantial increases in aboveground tree and forest floor C pools, leading to a sizeable increase in total ecosystem C pools following regreening.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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