John L. Field, Brandon P. Sloan, Matthew E. Craig, Parker Calloway, Sarah L. Ottinger, Thomas Mead, Rose Z. Abramoff, Mirko Pavicic Venegas, Hari B. Chhetri, Kathy Haiby, Udaya C. Kalluri, Wellington Muchero, Christopher W. Schadt, Melanie A. Mayes IN: bioRXiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.17.638464
There is a lack of understanding of which plant traits to target for SOC enhancement or the ultimate sequestration potential of such measures. Existing long-term common gardens of genetically diverse plant populations may provide an opportunity to evaluate biological controls on SOC outcomes, separate from environmental or management variability. Here the authors report on soil carbon and root chemical data collected for 24 genotypes within a 13-year-old common garden in northwestern Oregon planted with over a thousand natural variants of Populus trichocarpa. Fractionating surface soil (0–15 cm) revealed substantial variation in stocks of mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM; 18–67 tonnes C/ha) and particulate organic matter (POM; 2–22 tonnes C/ha).
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