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Citation

Joly F, Cotrufo MF, Garnett MH, Johnson D, Lavallee JM, Mueller CW, Perks MP & Subke J (2025) Temperate grassland conversion to conifer forest destabilises mineral soil carbon stocks. Journal of Environmental Management, 374, Art. No.: 124149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124149

Abstract
Tree-planting is increasingly presented as a cost-effective strategy to maximise ecosystem carbon (C) storage and thus mitigate climate change. Its success largely depends on the associated response of soil C stocks, where most terrestrial C is stored. Yet, we lack a precise understanding of how soil C stocks develop following tree planting, and particularly how it affects the form in which soil C is stored and its associated stability and resistance to climate change. Here, we present changes in C and nitrogen (N) stored as mineral-associated organic matter (OM), occluded particulate OM, free particulate OM and dissolved OM, from four regional chronosequences of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests planted on former grasslands across Scotland. We found that c. 58–68 years after the plantation, bulk soil C and N stocks in the organic layer and the top 20 cm of mineral soil decreased by half relative to unforested grasslands - a decrease roughly equivalent to a third of the simultaneous C gain in the tree biomass. This pattern was driven predominantly by a decrease in the amount of C and N stored as mineral-associated OM, an OM fraction considered as relatively long-lived. Our findings demonstrate the need to estimate C storage in response to tree planting based both on soil C stocks and tree biomass, as the use of the latter alone may significantly over-estimate net C benefits of tree planting on permanent grasslands.

Keywords
Afforestation; Land use; Mycorrhizal fungi; Plant-soil interaction; Scots pine

Journal
Journal of Environmental Management: Volume 374

• 1-s2.0-S0301479725001252-main