Fine root and soil carbon stocks are positively related in grasslands but not in forests

Increasing fine root carbon (FRC) inputs into soils has been proposed as a solution to increasing soil organic carbon (SOC). However, FRC inputs can also enhance SOC loss through priming. Here, we tested the broad-scale relationships between SOC and FRC at 43 sites across the US National Ecological Observatory Network. We found that SOC and FRC stocks were positively related with an across-ecosystem slope of 7 ± 3 kg SOC m −2 per kg FRC m −2 , but this relationship was driven by grasslands. Grasslands had double the across-ecosystem slope while forest FRC and SOC were unrelated. Furthermore, deep grassland soils primarily showed net SOC accrual relative to FRC input. Conversely, forests had high variability in whether FRC inputs were related to net SOC priming or accrual. We conclude that while FRC increases could lead to increased SOC in grasslands, especially at depth, the FRC-SOC relationship remains difficult to characterize in forests.

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Author Malhotra, A.
Moore, J. A. M.
Weintraub-Leff, S.
Georgiou, K.
Berhe, A. A.
Billings, S. A.
de Graaff, M.
Fraterrigo, J.
Grandy, A. S.
Kyker-Snowman, E.
Lu, M.
Meier, C. ORCID icon
Pierson, D.
Tumber-Dávila, S. J. ORCID icon
Lajtha, K.
Wieder, William ORCID icon
Jackson, R. B.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library

Publication Date 2025-07-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-12-24T17:45:24.725644
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:43879
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Malhotra, A., Moore, J. A. M., Weintraub-Leff, S., Georgiou, K., Berhe, A. A., Billings, S. A., de Graaff, M., Fraterrigo, J., Grandy, A. S., Kyker-Snowman, E., Lu, M., Meier, C., Pierson, D., Tumber-Dávila, S. J., Lajtha, K., Wieder, William, Jackson, R. B.. (2025). Fine root and soil carbon stocks are positively related in grasslands but not in forests. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7xp79cq. Accessed 23 March 2026.

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