Persistence of soil organic carbon caused by functional complexity

Lehmann, Johannes; Hansel, Colleen M.; Kaiser, Christina; Kleber, Markus; Maher, Kate; Manzoni, Stefano; Nunan, Naoise; Reichstein, Markus; Schimel, Joshua P.; Torn, Margaret S.; Wieder, William R.; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid

doi:10.1038/s41561-020-0612-3

Title: Persistence of soil organic carbon caused by functional complexity

Journal Article · Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Nature Geoscience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0612-3· OSTI ID:1863820

^[1];

^[2];

^[3];

^[4]; Maher, Kate ^[5];

^[6]; Nunan, Naoise ^[7];

^[8]; Schimel, Joshua P. ^[9];

^[10];

^[11]; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid ^[12]

Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Technical Univ. of Munich (Germany)
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
Univ. of Vienna (Austria)
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)
Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France)
Max Planck Inst. for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
Technical Univ. of Munich (Germany)

Soil organic carbon management has the potential to aid climate change mitigation through drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide. To be effective, such management must account for processes influencing carbon storage and re-emission at different space and time scales. Achieving this requires a conceptual advance in our understanding to link carbon dynamics from the scales at which processes occur to the scales at which decisions are made. Here, we propose that soil carbon persistence can be understood through the lens of decomposers as a result of functional complexity derived from the interplay between spatial and temporal variation of molecular diversity and composition. For example, co-location alone can determine whether a molecule is decomposed, with rapid changes in moisture leading to transport of organic matter and constraining the fitness of the microbial community, while greater molecular diversity may increase the metabolic demand of, and thus potentially limit, decomposition. This conceptual shift accounts for emergent behaviour of the microbial community and would enable soil carbon changes to be predicted without invoking recalcitrant carbon forms that have not been observed experimentally. Finally, functional complexity as a driver of soil carbon persistence suggests soil management should be based on constant care rather than one-time action to lock away carbon in soils.

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Research Organization:: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division; European Research Council (ERC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016364; AC02-05CH11231; 291763; 819446; 2016-04146

OSTI ID:: 1863820

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1783121

Journal Information:: Nature Geoscience, Vol. 13, Issue 8; ISSN 1752-0894

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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