Effects of management, climate and land-use change on forests belowground - short- and long-term shifts in soil organic carbon stocks and fluxes

We focus on the soil organic carbon (SOC) cycle in hemiboreal forests by examining plant root growth dynamics and root-associated rhizobiome driven changes in SOC pools along management, climate, and land use change gradients. Our main goals are to 1) estimate newly assimilated C allocation and identify shifts in organic C pool dynamics in forests growing in future climate, 2) assess the impact of management, land use, and climate change on the dynamics of temporal (including seasonal) and spatial fine root growth related rhizosphere fluxes, 3) elucidate changes in labile and stable SOC pools and their protection mechanisms under different land management, and 4) implement novel indicators reflecting soil health C-sequestration capacity. Our key results enable us to uncover asynchronies in C stocks fluxes in forests belowground, along with rhizodeposition-driven SOC pools in soils across gradients from crop/grassland to afforested, reforested, and old-growth forests.