Three Decades of Divergent Land Use and Plant Community Change Alters Soil C and N Content in Tallgrass Prairie

Connell, R. Kent; Nippert, Jesse B.; Blair, John M.

doi:10.1029/2020jg005723

Three Decades of Divergent Land Use and Plant Community Change Alters Soil C and N Content in Tallgrass Prairie

Journal Article · Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jg005723· OSTI ID:1865316

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Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States); Kansas State University
Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)

Frequent fire and grazing by megafauna are important determinants of tallgrass prairie plant community structure. However, fire suppression and removal of native grazers have altered these natural disturbance regimes and changed grassland plant communities with potential long-term consequences for soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) storage. We investigated multidecade changes in soil C and N pools in response to contrasting long-term burning and grazing treatments. Fire suppression with or without grazers and exclusion of grazers in annually burned prairie increased soil C content and shifted the δ¹³C signature of soil C over time, concomitant with changes in plant community composition. Soil δ¹³C values indicated that increased soil C content was associated with an increased contribution from plants using a C₃ photosynthetic pathway (i.e., woody shrubs) under fire suppression. Soil N content also increased when fire was suppressed, relative to frequently burned grassland, but the rate of increase was slower when grazers were present. Additionally, changes in δ¹⁵N values suggested that grazing increased the openness of the N cycle, presumably due to greater N losses. By coupling long-term fire and grazing treatments with plant community data and soil samples archived over three decades, we demonstrate that human-caused changes to natural disturbance regimes in a tallgrass prairie significantly alter soil C and N cycles through belowground changes associated with shifts in the plant community. Since natural disturbance regimes have been altered in grasslands across the world, our results are relevant for understanding the long-term biogeochemical consequences of these ongoing land use changes.

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Research Organization:: Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019037

OSTI ID:: 1865316

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Biogeosciences Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 125; ISSN 2169-8953

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
disturbance
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long-term data
plant community change
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stable isotopes

Three Decades of Divergent Land Use and Plant Community Change Alters Soil C and N Content in Tallgrass Prairie

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