Tree age affects carbon sequestration potential via altering soil bacterial community composition and function.

Front Microbiol

State Key Laboratory of Utilization of Woody Oil Resource, Hunan Academy of Forestry, Changsha, Hunan, China.

Published: July 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Tree stand age significantly influences soil carbon sinks through its interactions with soil organic matter, decomposition rates, and microbial activity, yet understanding of these effects is limited.
  • A study on Japanese larch plantations revealed that changes in tree age impact microbial composition and metabolic activity in the rhizosphere, with diversity and stability increasing from young to mature forests.
  • Keystone microbial taxa were linked to carbon transformation, with mature forests showing improved degradation of recalcitrant carbon, emphasizing the role of tree age-associated microbiomes in carbon sequestration.

Article Abstract

Among various factors related to the forest carbon pool, the tree stand age, which interacts with soil organic matter, decomposition rates, and microbial activity, is essential and cannot be disregarded. However, knowledge about how tree phases influence soil carbon sinks is not adequate. This study sampled (Japanese larch) plantations with different tree stand ages to investigate the temporal dynamics of soil carbon sink in the forest. Physiochemical analyses and high-throughput sequencing results further revealed the interactions of tree stands and their related rhizosphere microbiome. It was found that microbial composition and metabolic activity were significantly affected by different tree ages, whose structures gradually diversified and became more stable from young to mature forests. Many keystone taxa from the phyla Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Nitrospirota were found to be associated with carbon transformation processes. Interestingly, the carbon resource utilization strategies of microbial groups related to tree ages also differed, with near-mature forest soils showing better labile carbon degradation capacity, and mature forests possessing higher degradation potential of recalcitrant carbon. Age-altered tree growth and physiology were found to interact with its rhizosphere microbiome, which is the driving factor in the formation and stability of forest soil carbon. This study highlighted that the tree age-associated soil microbiomes, which provided insights into their effects on soil carbon transformation, were significant in enhancing the knowledge of carbon sequestration in plantations.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11265291PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379409DOI Listing

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