Soil organic matter dynamics under altered precipitation in a dry Scots pine forest

Project description:
Forest soils are among the largest terrestrial carbon pools. How soil carbon (C) responds to changing water availability is still poorly understood, particularly in already water-limited systems. This project investigates the composition and persistence of soil organic matter (SOM) and associated microbial communities in a dry inner-Alpine Scots pine forest exposed to long-term changes in precipitation and atmospheric demand. Earlier work showed that 19 years of irrigation redistributed bulk soil C from the organic layer into the mineral soil. Although total soil C stocks remained unchanged, a higher incorporation into mineral soils may increase long-term C storage (Guidi et al., 2022; Minich et al., 2026). We now ask, how persistent this redistributed C is, in which soil C fraction (particulate or mineral-associated) it resides, and which microbial communities are associated with it.
The work is based at Pfynwald, where a long-term irrigation experiment (since 2003) and the recently installed [VPDrought platform](https://vpdrought.wsl.ch/de/) together span three precipitation regimes (≈300, 600, and 1200 mm per year) crossed with manipulation of atmospheric vapour-pressure deficit. This setup allows us to disentangle the effects of soil and atmospheric drought, which typically co-vary in nature but may shape soil carbon dynamics through distinct pathways. SOM is separated by physical fractionation into particulate (POM) and mineral-associated (MAOM) fractions, characterized through elemental and isotopic analyses (C, N, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, ¹⁴C) and fraction-specific microbial community profiling. At the bulk soil level, we measure nutrient pools and extracellular enzyme activities, continue year-round soil respiration, and complement them by CH4 fluxes. Together, these data will reveal how soil carbon stocks and microbial processing respond to changing precipitation in a water-limited pine forest.