Nature – Ma et al. (2025): Substantial forest soil carbon accrual from absorptive fine roots over decadal timescales
Ning Ma, Shenggong Li, M. Luke McCormack, Grégoire T. Freschet, Philippe Ciais, Huimin Wang, Shuli Niu, Peter B. Reich, Miaomiao Zhang, Rongtian Zhao, Bo Zhao, Decai Gao, Arthur Gessler, Yuanyuan Huang, Jiacun Gu, Xiaoli Fu, Xiaoqin Dai, Shengwang Meng, Jiajia Zheng, Fengting Yang & Liang Kou, IN: Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01790-5
Forest soils hold the largest terrestrial carbon pool, derived from dead plant tissues and transformed by soil biota. Current frameworks emphasize the role of soil microbes in highly persistent forms of carbon. However, moderately persistent forms of carbon also contribute substantially to forest soil carbon pools through the iterative effects of plant litter inputs and outputs over multi-decadal timescales. These sources of soil carbon are not well constrained. Here the authors synthesize published field data of the finest roots (absorptive roots) of mycorrhizal woody plants across major forest ecosystem types in the Northern Hemisphere.