Journal article
Is there more soil carbon under nitrogen-fixing trees than under non-nitrogen-fixing trees in mixed-species restoration plantings?
M Hoogmoed, SC Cunningham, PJ Baker, J Beringer, TR Cavagnaro
Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment | Published : 2014
Abstract
Afforestation of agricultural land provides an important opportunity to mitigate climate change by storing carbon (C) in both plant biomass and the soil. Here we present results of a study in which we sought to determine whether soil under nitrogen(N)-fixing trees contained more C than soil under non-N-fixing trees in mixed-species plantings, and thus if inclusion of N-fixers is beneficial in terms of increasing soil C sequestration. Soils were sampled directly beneath N-fixing and non-N-fixing tree species in riparian and upland mixed-species plantings in southeastern Australia. Soil C and N contents were assessed at both the landscape and individual planting scales. At the landscape scale,..
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Awarded by Department of Sustainability and Environment
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Program (LP0990038), Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA), North Central CMA, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, EPA Victoria and Kilter Pty. Ltd. T.R.C. (FT120100463), J.B. (FT110100602) and P.J.B. (FT120100715) were supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowships. M.H. thanks the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for additional funding for fieldwork and laboratory analysis. We thank Mr Scott McDonald for his assistance and good cheer in the field. Thanks also to the landholders for access to their properties and Dr. Willem Hoogmoed for a critical reading of the manuscript. Many thanks to the two anonymous reviewers and editor of AgEE for their thoughtful comments that helped improved this paper.