Three decades of shade trees improve soil organic carbon pools but not methane uptake in coffee systems

Hao Sun; Fulan Zhang; Syed Turab Raza; Yingmo Zhu; Tao Ye; Li Rong; Zhe Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119166

Three decades of shade trees improve soil organic carbon pools but not methane uptake in coffee systems

J Environ Manage. 2023 Dec 1:347:119166. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119166. Epub 2023 Oct 3.

Authors

Hao Sun¹, Fulan Zhang², Syed Turab Raza³, Yingmo Zhu⁴, Tao Ye⁵, Li Rong⁶, Zhe Chen⁷

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Health in Universities of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion Prevention and Green Development, Institute of International Rivers and Eco-Security, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China.
² Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Health in Universities of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China.
³ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Health in Universities of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion Prevention and Green Development, Institute of International Rivers and Eco-Security, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China. Electronic address: s.turabkazmi@imde.ac.cn.
⁴ Faculty of Civil Aviation and Aeronautics, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
⁶ Yunnan Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion Prevention and Green Development, Institute of International Rivers and Eco-Security, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China.
⁷ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Transboundary Ecosecurity of Southwest China, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Plant Reproductive Adaptation and Evolutionary Ecology and Centre for Invasion Biology, Institute of Biodiversity, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology and Health in Universities of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500, China. Electronic address: zhechen2019@ynu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37797515
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119166

Abstract

The rapid expansion of coffee plantations in tropical area at the cost of natural forest may suppress the methane (CH₄) uptake and change the soil fertility. However, observations on soil CH₄ uptake rates and the ecological consequence studies on coffee-based plantations are sparse. The objectives of this study were to characterize the dynamics of CH₄ uptake among natural forest, coffee monoculture (CM), and coffee intercropping with shade tree (CI), and to evaluate the key drivers of soil CH₄ uptake. Results showed that the conversion of forest into 25-year and 34-year CM plantations significantly reduced the soil organic carbon (SOC) content by 57% and 76%, respectively, whereas CI plantation profoundly increased the SOC by 20%-76% compared with CM plantation. Although soils of forest, CM and CI functioned exclusively as CH₄ sinks, the CM and CI plantations significantly decreased the ambient CH₄ uptake rates by 64%-83% due to soil moisture shift and soil nitrate availability by using chemical fertilizer. Interestingly, the potential CH₄ uptake of CM and CI plantations did not decrease and in some treatments, was even higher than that of the natural forest. Potential CH₄ uptake showed a negative correlation with soil pH and SOC content, but a positive correlation with soil available phosphorus (AP). Collectively, although the SOC and soil pH were increased through intercropping with shade trees for decades, the inhibition of atmospheric CH₄ uptake was still difficult to alleviate.

Keywords: Coffee plantation; Forest; Methane uptake; Shade tree; Soil fertility; Soil organic carbon.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Forests
Methane
Soil* / chemistry
Trees* / chemistry

Substances

Soil
Carbon
Methane