Little is currently known about how climate modulates the relationship
between plant diversity and soil organic carbon and the mechanisms involved.
Yet, this knowledge is of crucial importance in times of climate change and
biodiversity loss. Here, we show that plant diversity is positively correlated
with soil carbon content and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio across 84 grasslands
on six continents that span wide climate gradients. The relationships between
plant diversity and soil carbon as well as plant diversity and soil organicmatter
quality (carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) are particularly strong in warm and arid
climates. While plant biomass is positively correlated with soil carbon, plant
biomass is not significantly correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicate
that plant diversity influences soil carbon storage not via the quantity of
organic matter (plant biomass) inputs to soil, but through the quality of
organic matter. The study implies that ecosystem management that restores
plant diversity likely enhances soil carbon sequestration, particularly in warm
and arid climates.
Description:
DATA AVAILABILITY : All data are available at this repository.
https://DOI.org/10.5281/zenodo.8308135.
