Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, POB 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany.
1] Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743 Jena, Germany [2] German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany [3] Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2015 Apr 7;6:6707. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7707.
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 ((14)C) 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.
植物多样性强烈影响生态系统功能和服务，如土壤碳储存。然而，植物多样性对土壤碳储存的积极影响的机制尚不清楚。我们使用草原生物多样性实验（耶拿实验）和放射性碳（^14^C）建模的长期数据来探索这种关系。在这里，我们表明，较高的植物多样性增加了根际碳向微生物群落的输入，从而导致微生物活性和碳储存的增加。土壤碳的增加与高多样性样地中最近固定碳的积累增加有关，而植物多样性对现有碳的分解速率的影响较小。本研究表明，高植物多样性下的碳储存增加是土壤微生物群落的直接功能，表明碳储存的增加主要受新碳纳入土壤的限制，而不是受现有土壤碳分解的限制。
