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Dryad

Tree species richness and soil organic carbon stock

Cite this dataset

Wang, Hui (2023). Tree species richness and soil organic carbon stock [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2ngf1vhnd

Abstract

Recently, the perspectives for the stronger persistence of soil organic carbon (SOC) caused by the higher molecular diversity of organic compounds were proposed. Therefore, the effects of tree species richness and composition on the diversity of molecular components of SOC need to be explored. In this study, we collected data on tree species diversity and composition, SOC concentration, chemical composition, litter and fine root properties, and examined the relationships between the richness, composition and functional diversity of tree species, and the evenness of SOC chemical compositions at a molecular level by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance, across six natural forest types encompassing a diversity gradient, ranging from cold temperate to tropical forests. Across the range, tree species richness correlated to the evenness of SOC chemical components through tree species composition. The negative correlation of evenness of SOC chemical components with tree species composition and the positive correlation of evenness of SOC chemical components with tree functional diversity were found. The positive correlation of the evenness of SOC chemical components with indicator tree species. These findings suggest that the indicator tree species conservation might be preferable to simply increasing tree species richness, for enhancing the potential resistance of SOC to decomposition.