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Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to show the influence of vegetation in the storage and stabilisation of organic carbon in semi-arid Juniperus thurifera (J. thurifera) forest soil in central Spain. The variability of the organic matter storage with factors such as sex, trunk diameter and the protection of the canopy of the tree has been analysed. The distribution of the soil organic carbon (SOC) into different fractions has also been determined, in order to estimate the stability of the organic matter. The results show that the SOC concentration has no dependence on the sex of the tree, but it increases with the diameter of the trunk and under the protection of the tree canopy. This study found that the organic matter of the J. thurifera forest soil has a high proportion of recalcitrant organic fraction, humin, which suggests that, given its organic matter stability, J. thurifera forest soils could be a real carbon sink. Consequently, the conservation of this type of old forest ecosystem is important for promoting carbon sequestration.
Highlights
Climate change is one of today’s most important global environmental issues, which directly affects all natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems [1]
It is possible to see that the total organic carbon (TOC) was higher in the samples of soils taken for the group D trees than those from group A trees
We can conclude that the studied J. thurifera forest does not have a large amount of C if it is compared with the other forests mentioned in this work; its organic matter is more stable than those for the oak and pine forests of a previous work [52]
Summary
Climate change is one of today’s most important global environmental issues, which directly affects all natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems [1]. The number of studies on soil organic carbon (SOC) changes in different ecosystems is increasing [3,4,5,6,7]. Forests are covering about 30% of the terrestrial landscape in the world [8], and they are the main pool for terrestrial C stock, where the main C storage occurs in the forest biomass and soils [9]. In the forest ecosystem, C storage occurs in the tree aerial biomass—stems, branches and foliage—ground vegetation [10], tree-root biomass, forest floor, and soil [11]. In the forest ecosystem, the soil C stock is important given that it is in dynamic equilibrium with the vegetation [12]
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