Fire-Derived Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus -- Wardle et al. 320 (5876): 629 -- Science

Fire-Derived Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus

David A. Wardle,^* Marie-Charlotte Nilsson, Olle Zackrisson

Fire is a global driver of carbon storage and converts a substantial proportion of plant biomass to black carbon (for example, charcoal), which remains in the soil for thousands of years. Black carbon is therefore often proposed as an important long-term sink of soil carbon. We ran a 10-year experiment in each of three boreal forest stands to show that fire-derived charcoal promotes loss of forest humus and that this is associated with enhancement of microbial activity by charcoal. This result shows that charcoal-induced losses of belowground carbon in forests can partially offset the benefits of charcoal as a long-term carbon sink.

Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE901-83 Umeå, Sweden.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: david.wardle@svek.slu.se

Fire-Derived Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus -- Wardle et al. 320 (5876): 629 -- Science