Afforestation neutralizes soil pH

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02970-1
• Publication Date: 2018-01-31T17:27:31Z
• Authors: Songbai Hong; Shilong Piao; Anping Chen; Yongwen Liu; Lingli Liu; Shushi Peng; Jordi Sardans; Yan Sun; Josep Peñuelas; Hui Zeng
• Keywords: Afforestation

Abstract Soil pH regulates soil biogeochemical processes and has cascading effects on terrestrial ecosystem structure functions. Afforestation been widely adopted to increase carbon sequestration enhance water preservation. However, the effect of afforestation is still poorly understood inconclusive. Here we investigate afforestation-caused changes with pairwise samplings from 549 afforested 148 control plots in northern China. We find significant neutralization by afforestation—afforestation lowers relatively alkaline but raises acid soil. The thresholds ( T ), point when increasing decreasing pH, are species-specific, ranging 5.5 Pinus koraiensis ) 7.3 Populus spp.) a mean 6.3. These findings indicate that can modify if tree species initial properly matched, which may potentially improve fertility promote productivity.