Initial changes in soil properties and carbon sequestration potential under monocultures and short-rotation alley coppices with poplar and willow after three years of plantation

Abstract

Initial changes in soil structure and C stocks were studied under short-rotation coppices (SRC) planted on former cropland near Göttingen, Central Germany. Plantations were established either as monocultures with willow (Willow-SRC) or poplar (Poplar-SRC), or as an agroforestry system with willow strips and grassland alleys in between (Willow-AF). A neighbouring cropland served as a control. Three sampling campaigns were applied in this study. The first sampling was conducted at a fine scale to reveal the differences in soil C with depth (i.e. 0–3, 3–6, 6–9, 9–12, 12–15, 15–20, 20–30cm). Here, results indicated the main differences between plantations in 0–3, 3–20 and 20–30cm layers. These soil depths were therefore chosen for the second sampling campaign to reveal differences in aggregate composition, C accumulation in aggregates and density fraction, and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) between plantations. Furthermore, quality of soil organic matter and amount of C mineralised by microorganisms were estimated by an incubation experiment. Results here indicated two times higher CO2 emissions from the top layer than from the lower layers under SRCs, as well as higher MBC in SRCs (490–788.7μgCg−1) than in cropland (266.4μgCg−1). The results of the third sampling on the texture of respective soil horizons indicated a significant correlation (R2=78%) of soil clay to C at 0–3cm depth. It was concluded that aggregation and C in microbial biomass and free light fractions were the first indicators of soil quality improvement after conversion of arable land to SRC plantations.