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Estimating root: shoot ratio and soil carbon inputs in temperate grasslands with the RothC model

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Abstract

Background and aims

Carbon inputs to soil are mostly site- and management-nonspecific estimates based on measured yield. However, in grasslands most carbon input is root-derived and plant carbon allocation patterns are known to vary strongly across sites and management regimes. The aim here was to estimate carbon inputs by fitting the RothC model to time series of soil organic carbon (SOC) data from field sites and to explain the observed variability in root: shoot ratio (R:S).

Methods

Time series of SOC stocks in 15 different temperate grasslands were simulated using eight different literature-derived R:S values, which were compared to the optimised, site-specific R:S. The model-derived root inputs were validated with literature-derived root biomass data.

Results

A single, static R:S for yield-based carbon input estimation for all grasslands was not appropriate. Nitrogen fertilisation (R2 = 0.57) significantly reduced the optimised R:S, which can be explained by the higher investment of plants in roots for nitrogen acquisition under nitrogen deficiency. The average R:S derived was 5.9 ± 1.9 for unfertilised soils and 2.4 ± 1.5 for fertilised soils.

Conclusions

The results enable distinction of unfertilised and fertilised temperate grasslands regarding carbon input parameterisation for the RothC model and highlight the importance of nutrient regime for the carbon cycle.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the Lawes Agricultural Trust and Rothamsted Research for data from the e-RA database. The Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments National Capability (LTE-NCG) is supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Lawes Agricultural Trust. I am grateful to Margaret Glendining (Rothamsted Research) for quality checking and corrections relating to the Park Grass data. I further thank the state office of agriculture, environment and rural areas for Schleswig Holstein, the state office of environment, measurements and nature conservation for Baden-Württemberg, the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA, Katja Klumpp) and Arezoo Taghizadeh-Toosi (Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Tjele 8830, Denmark) for providing data. Finally I like to thank the group of Axel Don for fruitful comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Thuenen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Bundesallee 50, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany

    Christopher Poeplau

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Poeplau, C. Estimating root: shoot ratio and soil carbon inputs in temperate grasslands with the RothC model. Plant Soil 407, 293–305 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3017-8

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