Mowing Increases Root-to-Shoot Ratio but Decreases Soil Organic Carbon Storage and Microbial Biomass C in a Semiarid Grassland of North China

Lu Li, Huaiqiang Liu and Taogetao Baoyin ()
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Lu Li: Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Huaiqiang Liu: Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China
Taogetao Baoyin: Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Quantifying the long-term effects of mowing on soil organic carbon (SOC) is of great importance for understanding the changes in the carbon cycle of the grassland ecosystem and for managing the grassland strategies for both production and soil nutrients. We investigated SOC content and storage within the 0–30 cm soil layer in the grasslands following the application of different mowing regimes—i.e., mowing once every 2 years (M 1/2 ), mowing twice every 3 years (M 2/3 ), mowing once a year (M 1/1 ), mowing twice a year (M 2/1 ), and no mowing (CK)—in the semiarid steppe of northern China. The results indicated that SOC storage and microbial biomass C (MBC) decreased significantly with soil depth. Different mowing frequencies all declined SOC storage and MBC of the grassland ecosystem; however, the root-to-shoot ratio (R:S) was increased. The SOC storage was greatest under CK and had the following order: CK > M 1/2 > M 2/3 > M 1/1 > M 2/1 at 0–20 cm, while no significant difference existed in the five mowing frequencies at the soil 20–30 cm layers. Our findings elucidate that different mowing regimes influence soil carbon storage by altering the productivity of vegetation, litter, plant community composition, soil microbial biomass, and resource allocation between aboveground plants and belowground roots, which need to be considered in the sustainable utilization of grasslands in the future. The results of this study support the view that mowing once every 2 years may be an effective mowing management regime for semiarid grasslands, as it conserves both above and belowground parts and maintains the healthy development of ecosystem functions in semiarid grasslands.

Keywords: different mowing regimes; soil organic carbon storage; microbial biomass C; root-to-shoot ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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