Carbon Stocks and Carbon Stock Changes in German Forest Soils

Abstract

Forests play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Through photosynthesis plants convert atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) into plant biomass. About half of the C stored in the plant biomass is subsequently released into the atmosphere by respiration in plants. Most of the remaining C enters the soil, e.g., as dead leaf or root biomass. The amount of soil C is determined by the net balance of the rate of organic C input and its decomposition. Soils are the largest reservoir of organic C in the active C cycle of terrestrial ecosystems. Globally, they contain about 1.5-2.0 Â 10 15 tons of organic C to a depth of 1 m (Amundson 2001). Forest soils store one third of the global organic C. They are a larger reservoir for C than plants and atmosphere combined (Schlesinger 1991). With regard to climate protection policy, the sequestration of atmospheric C in soils as stable organic matter is discussed as a potential contribution to mitigate atmospheric CO 2 concentrations (Janzen 2004). A proportion of the C entering the soil is mineralized by microorganisms resulting in the release of CO 2 and/or

Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Mixed-Deciduous and Coniferous Forests in Austria

“…A detailed analysis of German forest soils showed significantly higher carbon stocks in the litter layer of spruce forests, as compared to beech (Fagus sylvatica). In the mineral soil the difference was statistically not significant (Grüneberg et al, 2014(Grüneberg et al, , 2019. The findings are supported by the comprehensive analysis of Swiss soil data that have been presented for the litter layer and the mineral soil to a depth of 1.2 m (Gosheva et al, 2017).…”

Carbon Sequestration in Mixed Deciduous Forests: The Influence of Tree Size and Species Composition Derived from Model Experiments

“…All simulated values are mean values over 10 simulation runs each with a size of 1 ha to minimize stochasticity effects of mortality and regrowth in simulation results. Soil carbon pools (fast-decomposing soil stock: 21.06 Mg C ha −1 , and slow-decomposing soil stock: 95.95 Mg C ha −1 ) were initialized according to Grüneberg et al with 117 Mg C ha −1 (carbon stocks in the organic layer and mineral soil down to a depth of 90 cm) , with 18% in the organic soil [42]. The deadwood pool (4.14 Mg C ha −1 ) was adapted from Rödig et al [41].…”

Soil carbon and nutrient stocks under Scots pine plantations in comparison to European beech forests: a paired-plot study across forests with different management history and precipitation regimes

“…Forest soils store one third (c. 720 Pg) of the global organic carbon (C) (Schlesinger 1991, Price et al 2012 and thus are an important element of the global C cycle (Lal 2005). Soil organic C (SOC) storage depends not only on climate (Lorenz & Lal 2010) and mineral properties, notably the potential of soils to stabilize organic C on reactive mineral surfaces (Vogel et al 2015), but it may also be influenced by tree species identity and forest management (Binkley & Giardina 1998;Jandl et al 2007;Grüneberg et al 2019). Tree species influence the C input to the soil by differences in the amounts of aboveground litter (leaves, fruits, coarse woody debris) and root litter (Roy et al 2001;Finér et al 2011;Schlesinger & Bernhardt 2013) as well as in root exudation rates and carbohydrate transfer to the mycorrhiza (Godbold et al 2006;Pausch & Kuzyakov 2018;Akatsuki & Makita 2020).…”

“…Binkley & Valentine 1991;Vesterdal & Raulund-Rasmussen 1998;Fischer et al 2002), the species effect on mineral soil SOC pools is less clear (e.g. Heinsdorf 2002;Ladegaard-Pedersen et al 2005;Jandl et al 2007;Schulp et al 2008;Grüneberg et al 2019). Thus, which forest type in general sequesters more SOC cannot be simply be stated, because C sequestration also depends on soil and climate.…”