Fig. 5: Contributions of microbial- and plant-derived C to SOC loss across dry agroecosystems under climate change.
From: Degradable film mulching increases soil carbon sequestration in major Chinese dryland agroecosystems
a Spatial distributions of sampling sites and ΔSOC in the topsoil and subsoil under different mulching practices. Error bars represent standard error (n = 3). b Changes in SOC, microbial- and plant-derived C storage during the incubation experiment. Error bars represent half of the standard error, and lowercase letters indicate significant differences at p = 0.05 (n = 51). SOC soil organic carbon, Δmicrobial-derived C soil microbial-derived C in sampling sites before the incubation experiment minus microbial-derived C after the experiment, ΔPlant-derived C soil plant-derived C in sampling sites before the incubation experiment minus plant-derived C after the experiment, ΔSOC SOC in sampling sites before the incubation experiment minus SOC after the experiment, NM conventional tillage without mulching, PM plastic film mulching, DM degradable film mulching. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. The aridity index data used in the figure were obtained from the Global Aridity Index and Potential Evapotranspiration Database–Version 3 (Global-AI_PET_v3)29.
