Abstract
Background and aims
Modification in grazing intensity causes functional changes in permanent grasslands, e.g. in carbon (C) cycling. However, we still know little about how the soil organic C of permanent grasslands responds to grazing intensity.
Methods
In a grassland experiment with three levels of grazing intensity, we monitored root and rhizome C stocks, particulate organic C stocks, total soil C stocks, above-ground net primary production and plant species groups abundance over 7 years. A simple model was used to estimate the mortality of roots and rhizomes, decomposition rates of particulate organic C, and C fluxes under different grazing intensities.
Results
After 7 years, low grazing intensity and no grazing led to a modification in above-ground vegetation (production, plant species composition, nitrogen content) and a reduction in C transferred between roots and particulate organic matter fractions, while the C stocks of root and rhizomes, particulate organic matter and total soil were not significantly affected by grazing intensity. However, particulate organic C showed a strong interannual variability.
Conclusion
Particulate organic C could have reacted more slowly than expected to changes in grazing intensity, or a marked interannual variability of particulate organic C stocks, through an increase in decomposition rates in all the grazing treatments, could have slowed down the accumulation of particulate organic C and masked the effect of the grazing intensity treatments.
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Abbreviations
- AB:
-
Abandonment treatment
- ANPP:
-
Above-ground net primary production
- BNPP:
-
Below-ground net primary production
- AOM:
-
Aggregated organic matter
- AOC:
-
Aggregated organic carbon
- Cat−:
-
Low cattle grazing intensity treatment
- Cat+:
-
High cattle grazing intensity treatment
- cPOM:
-
Coarse particulate organic matter
- cPOC:
-
Coarse particulate organic carbon
- DMD:
-
Dry matter digestibility
- fPOM:
-
Fine particulate organic matter
- fPOC:
-
Fine particulate organic carbon
- LSU:
-
Livestock unit
- MRT:
-
Mean residence time
- NC:
-
Nitrogen content
- NIRS:
-
Near infrared spectroscopy
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a doctoral fellowship from VetagroSup and DGER “pole ESTIVE” to DH. The authors thank Priscilla Note, Vincent Guillot and Olivier Darsonville for assistance with site management, field sampling and data collection on SOERE-ACBB research facilities. We also thank Laurence Andanson and Louise Mackovcin for laboratory support. This manuscript was greatly improved thanks to comments by Dr K. Klumpp and three anonymous referees.
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Damien, H., Nathalie, V., Frédérique, L. et al. How does soil particulate organic carbon respond to grazing intensity in permanent grasslands?. Plant Soil 394, 239–255 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2528-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2528-z