Journal
BIOGEOSCIENCES
Volume 11, Issue 18, Pages 5199-5213Publisher
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/bg-11-5199-2014
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Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Climate and Environmental Science Division of the US Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- University of Zurich Research Priority Program (URPP) Global Change and Biodiversity
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Pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) plays an important role as a stable carbon (C) sink in the soils of terrestrial ecosystems. However, uncertainties remain about in situ turnover rates of fire-derived PyOM in soil, the main processes leading to PyOM-C and nitrogen (N) losses from the soil, and the role of N availability on PyOM cycling in soils. We measured PyOM and native soil organic carbon losses from the soil as carbon dioxide and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) using additions of highly C-13-labelled PyOM (2.03 atom %) and its precursor pinewood during 1 year in a temperate forest soil. The field experiment was carried out under ambient and increased mineral N deposition (+60 kg N-NH4NO3 ha(-1) year(-1)). The results showed that after 1 year: (1) 0.5% of PyOM-C and 22% of wood-C were mineralized as CO2, leading to an estimated turnover time of 191 and 4 years, respectively; (2) the quantity of PyOM and wood lost as dissolved organic carbon was negligible (0.0004 +/- 0.0003% and 0.022 +/- 0.007 % of applied-C, respectively); and (3) N additions decreased cumulative PyOM mineralization by 43 %, but did not affect cumulative wood mineralization and did not affect the loss of DOC from PyOM or wood. We conclude that mineralization to CO2 was the main process leading to PyOM losses during the first year of mineralization in a forest soil, and that N addition can decrease PyOM-C cycling, while added N showed no effect on wood C cycling.
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