Data from: Manipulation of carbon fluxes changes the root litter inhabiting microbial community structures and affects the root litter decomposition rate
Large fraction of boreal forest carbon (C) stocks is stored to their soils. Climate warming and the increase in CO2 levels will accelerate the rate of plant photosynthesis and consequently, increase the flow of recently assimilated C to the soil. This may in turn enhance the microbial activity and degradation of also more recalcitrant organic matter through priming. In a four-year trenching experiment in boreal pine forest in southern Finland, we quantified the effects of altered plant C flow to root litter decomposition rate and litter-inhabiting fungal and bacterial communities and their activities. The measured root litter decomposition rates were compared to those modelled with Yasso15-model. The trenching plots consisted of a combination of two above ground vegetation treatments, control and cut vegetation, and three below ground soil trenching treatments, plots separated with 1 um and 50 um mesh, and control,. The manipulation of aboveground and belowground carbon fluxes altered the structure of the root litter inhabiting microbial communities which affected root litter decomposition after 4 years of the experiment. On the other hand, the abundance of soil fauna did not respond to the trenching treatment. Yasso15 predicted well the observed initial decomposition in all treatments but became more inaccurate over time when the plant C flow was intensively manipulated both belowground and aboveground. Thus, we conclude that the ecosystem disturbances affecting C fluxes to soil are not predicted well by soil C decomposition models.