Deep-rooted perennial crops differ in capacity to stabilize C inputs in deep soil layers.

ABSTRACT: Comprehensive climate change mitigation necessitates soil carbon (C) storage in cultivated terrestrial ecosystems. Deep-rooted perennial crops may help to turn agricultural soils into efficient C sinks, especially in deeper soil layers. Here, we compared C allocation and potential stabilization to 150 cm depth from two functionally distinct deep-rooted perennials, i.e., lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) and intermediate wheatgrass (kernza; Thinopyrum intermedium), representing legume and non-legume crops, respectively. Belowground C input and stabilization was decoupled from nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate in kernza (100 and 200 kg mineral N ha^-1), with no direct link between increasing mineral N fertilization, rhizodeposited C, and microbial C stabilization. Further, both crops display

SUBMITTER: Peixoto L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8993804 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature