Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11057-4
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Funding
- National Science Foundation's Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Program [1630399]
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research [DE-SC0018409, DE-FC02-07ER64494]
- National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research Program at the Kellogg Biological Station [DEB 1637653]
- Michigan State University AgBioResearch
- DAAD-German Academic Exchange Service' program Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists, 2017 [57314018]
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Division Of Earth Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1630399] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Increasing the potential of soil to store carbon (C) is an acknowledged and emphasized strategy for capturing atmospheric CO2. Well-recognized approaches for soil C accretion include reducing soil disturbance, increasing plant biomass inputs, and enhancing plant diversity. Yet experimental evidence often fails to support anticipated C gains, suggesting that our integrated understanding of soil C accretion remains insufficient. Here we use a unique combination of X-ray micro-tomography and micro-scale enzyme mapping to demonstrate for the first time that plant-stimulated soil pore formation appears to be a major, hitherto unrecognized, determinant of whether new C inputs are stored or lost to the atmosphere. Unlike monocultures, diverse plant communities favor the development of 30-150 mu m pores. Such pores are the micro-environments associated with higher enzyme activities, and greater abundance of such pores translates into a greater spatial footprint that microorganisms make on the soil and consequently soil C storage capacity.
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