School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-6-2025
Abstract
Soil degradation from intensive tillage poses a critical barrier to carbon sequestration, particularly in semi-arid regions where low rainfall limits ecosystem recovery. As climate change expands arid zones globally, understanding the long-term potential for soil organic carbon (SOC) recovery in degraded lands becomes increasingly urgent. Here, we analyze reforested chronosequences (4–36 years post-abandonment) in formerly cultivated subtropical thornscrub woodlands to assess SOC dynamics across gradients of soil texture and degradation. We introduce a novel degradation index (DI), integrating SOC deficit and grass dominance, to evaluate how invasive grasses, commonly overlooked in restoration metrics, impede nitrogen (N2)-fixing tree establishment and, consequently, SOC recovery in N-depleted soils. SOC accumulation was greatest (0.46 Mg C ha⁻1 yr⁻1) in moderately degraded, loamy floodplain soils where native N2-fixing trees thrived, reducing SOC deficits by 17% and coinciding with a δ15N decline from 7.18 to 5.27‰. In contrast, sandy uplands exhibited slower recovery and persistent grass cover, while clay-rich sites maintained high baseline SOC with minimal gains. δ13C trends confirmed a shift from C4 to C3 inputs across sites. Our findings demonstrate that site-specific texture and degradation state, especially grass competition, shape SOC trajectories, underscoring the need for targeted reforestation strategies in an increasingly arid world.
Recommended Citation
Colunga, Samantha, Alejandro Fierro Cabo, Bradley Christoffersen, and Engil Pereira. 2025. “Tillage Legacy, Grasses and Soil Texture Shape Soil Organic Carbon Recovery in Semi-Arid Woodland.” Scientific Reports 15 (1): 34789. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-18504-x
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Scientific Reports
DOI
10.1038/s41598-025-18504-x
Included in
Environmental Monitoring Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Soil Science Commons
Comments
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material.