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Fire Accelerates Assimilation and Transfer of Photosynthetic Carbon from Plants to Soil Microbes in a Northern Peatland

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Abstract

Northern peatlands are recognized as globally important stores of terrestrial carbon (C), yet we have limited understanding of how global changes, including land use, affect C cycling processes in these ecosystems. Making use of a long-term (>50 year old) peatland land management experiment in the UK, we investigated, using a 13CO2 pulse chase approach, how managed burning and grazing influenced the short-term uptake and cycling of C through the plant–soil system. We found that burning affected the composition and growth stage of the plant community, by substantially reducing the abundance of mature ericoid dwarf-shrubs. Burning also affected the structure of the soil microbial community, measured using phospholipid fatty acid analysis, by reducing fungal biomass. There was no difference in net ecosystem exchange of CO2, but burning was associated with an increase in photosynthetic uptake of 13CO2 and increased transfer of 13C to the soil microbial community relative to unburned areas. In contrast, grazing had no detectable effects on any measured C cycling process. Our study provides new insight into how changes in vegetation and soil microbial communities arising from managed burning affect peatland C cycling processes, by enhancing the uptake of photosynthetic C and the transfer of C belowground, whilst maintaining net ecosystem exchange of CO2 at pre-burn levels.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) EHFI grant (NE/E011594/1) awarded to R. D. Bardgett and N. J. Ostle. The authors thank Hannah Tobermann and Emily Bottoms for their help in the field, Helen Grant for her stable isotope analysis, and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier versions of this manuscript. The authors also thank Natural England and the Environmental Change Network, CEH, Lancaster for access to and information on the field site.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil and Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Susan E. Ward, Helen Quirk & Richard D. Bardgett

  2. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK

    Susan E. Ward, Nick J. Ostle, Simon Oakley, Andrew Stott, Peter A. Henrys & W. Andrew Scott

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  1. Susan E. Ward
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Correspondence to Susan E. Ward.

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Author contributions

SEW, NJO, RDB conceived and designed the study and wrote the paper. SEW, SO, HQ, AS performed the research and contributed methods. SEW, PAH, WAS analysed data.

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Ward, S.E., Ostle, N.J., Oakley, S. et al. Fire Accelerates Assimilation and Transfer of Photosynthetic Carbon from Plants to Soil Microbes in a Northern Peatland. Ecosystems 15, 1245–1257 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9581-8

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