Wild boar grubbing causes organic carbon loss from both top- and sub-soil in an oak forest in central China

Abstract

Soil disturbances by large animals are known to affect soil carbon (C) storage and thus have the potential to change ecosystem functioning in forests. However, little is known about the effects of wild boar grubbing on soil CO2 emission in forest ecosystems. Here we investigated soil respiration and soil physico-chemical properties of top- (0–10 cm) and sub-soil (10–20 cm) on the paired grubbed and non-grubbed plots in an oak forest for a 2-year period. Wild boar grubbing substantially increased soil respiration by 69.5% in 2015 and 32.9% in 2016, respectively. Wild boar disturbance considerably elevated soil basal respiration but showed no effect on its temperature sensitivity. In addition, we found that the grubbing-induced increases in soil organic carbon and microbial biomass activity from both top- and sub-soil contributed to the stimulated soil respiration after the disturbance. Our 2-year experiment indicates that soil bioturbation could lead to a strong positive effect on soil CO2 emission in oak forest ecosystems, but the stimulation tends to reduce with recovery time. The finding also highlights the importance of soil depth and time effect while quantifying the effect of wild boar grubbing on soil C storage in forest ecosystems.