Rhizodeposition in the Plant Economic Space for 15 grassland species and its links to biogeochemical cycles (C,N)

Understanding how photosynthetic carbon is delivered into the soil system through rhizodeposition is of utmost importance in a changing world, as it represents an essential part of carbon cycling in soils. The plant economic space (PES) is a theoretical model representing plant strategies resource acquisition strategies based on two independent trade-offs: (i) resource acquisition vs conservation and (ii) exploration outsourcing (cooperation with mycorrhizal fungi) vs do-it-yourself. The PES is known to be related to a set of chemical and morphological traits, but some physiological traits such as rhizodeposition lack attention because they are harder to measure, while they are crucial for our understanding of resource allocation strategies and their linkages to ecosystem processes. For example, gross rhizodeposition can represent more than 40% of belowground carbon allocation.

We aimed to provide more insights on the relationship between rhizodeposition and the two dimensions of the PES, with a focus on the second axis, as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are supposed to play an essential role of sink in the sink/source model of rhizodeposition. To do so, we grew 15 grassland plant species with contrasting resource acquisition strategies in a 3-month long pot experiment, with or without litter inputs. By means of ¹³C pulse-labelling, we traced carbon fluxes from recent photosynthates in major pools, including above-and belowground parts of the plant, but also in microbial biomass and microbial functional groups using PLFAs, soil organic matter, and soil respiration. We also measured net and gross nitrogen mineralisation.

We hypothesise that (i) rhizodeposition will be strongly link to the fast-slow gradient, fast-growing species being associated with higher rhizodeposition rates, but (ii) rhizodeposition will also show significant relationships with the exploration gradient, as tighter plant-soil biota association – including more AMF colonisation – could promote higher rhizodeposition rate, because of sink mechanisms. Higher rhizodeposition should also be associated (iii) with a shift in microbial community toward functional groups more dependant to plant carbon such as AMF and Gram negative bacteria, as well as (iv) higher soil respiration and nitrogen mineralisation.