2019), and in natural ecosystems (Chen et al. 2019), in experimental grasslands (Fornara and Tilman 2008, Steinbeis et al. Further, recent findings indicate that C storage is enhanced by increased grassland plant species richness in several situations: in systems recovering from disturbance (Yang et al. For example, soil C storage is higher in temperate grasslands than temperate forests (Lal 2004) due to relatively high grassland plant biomass allocation to roots and relatively slow below-ground decomposition of these substrates (Jackson et al. ![]() Grasslands are overachievers at storing soil carbon (Conant et al. The maintenance and enhancement of soil carbon are management imperatives for global sustainability (Minasny et al. ![]() Our results suggest that management for species richness provides the co-benefit of soil C storage, and high clay and prairie dog disturbance compromises both. Soil C was negatively related to prairie dog presence, suggesting that prairie dogs do not enhance soil carbon sequestration in fact, prairie dog occupied sites had significantly lower soil C, likely related to loss of topsoil from prairie dog colonies. Surprisingly, soil C was negatively related to soil clay, suggesting that surface clays amplify evaporation and water runoff rather than protecting soil organic matter from decomposition. Our best possible model explained 45% of the variance in soil C using species richness, grassland type, and their interaction. The presence of a single indicator species, Andropogon gerardii, showed a significant, positive relationship with soil carbon. However, the relationship of soil C and plant richness was not found in all three grassland types studied, but instead was unique to the most common grassland type, mixed grass prairie, and absent from both xeric tallgrass and mesic tallgrass prairie. Soil C was significantly, positively related to plant species richness, while native perennial graminoid species richness exhibited an even stronger positive relationship. Using 141 grassland transects, we tested how soil C was related to plant species richness, grassland type, soil texture, and prairie dog presence. ![]() We studied relationships among soil C and plant species richness within ~ 9700 ha of grasslands in Colorado, US. Understanding the relationship of soil carbon storage and species diversity in grasslands can provide insights into managing these ecosystems.
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