Soil physico-chemical properties are critical for predicting carbon storage and nutrient availability across Australia
Autor: | Elise Pendall, Andrew Bissett, Jinquan Li, Jeff R. Powell, Ming Nie |
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Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
2. Zero hunger
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Biodiversity Climate change 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences 15. Life on land 01 natural sciences Physical property Carbon cycle Carbon storage Nutrient 13. Climate action Environmental protection 040103 agronomy & agriculture 0401 agriculture forestry and fisheries Environmental science Chemical property 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science |
Zdroj: | Environmental Research Letters. 15:094088 |
ISSN: | 1748-9326 |
Popis: | Soil carbon and nutrient availability play crucial roles in ecosystem sustainability, and they are controlled by the interaction of climatic, biotic, and soil physico-chemical variables. Although soil physico-chemical properties have been recognized as vital variables for predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) and nutrients, their relative influence across broad geographical scales has yet to be evaluated when simultaneously considering many other drivers. Using boosted regression tree and structural equation modelling analyses of observations from topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (20–30 cm) at 628 sites across Australia, we investigated the effects and relative influence of climate (mean annual temperature and aridity index), plant productivity, soil biodiversity (bacterial and fungal richness), and soil physical (clay and silt) and chemical (pH and iron) properties on SOC content and nutrient availability (i.e. nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Among these variables, we found that soil physico-chemical properties primarily predicted the continent-scale SOC storage and nutrient availability. In contrast, climate, plant productivity, and soil biodiversity played relatively small roles. The importance of physico-chemical properties was evident across soil depths and ecosystem types (i.e. tropical, temperate, arid, and cropland). Our findings point to the need to better understand the role of soil physico-chemical properties in soil carbon and nutrient cycling and including these variables in predictions of SOC and nutrient dynamics at the ecosystem to continental scale. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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