Soil carbon and plant richness relationships differ among grassland types, disturbance history and plant functional groups

Understanding the relationship of soil carbon storage and species diversity in grasslands can provide insights into managing these ecosystems. We studied relationships among soil C and plant species richness within ~ 9700 ha of grasslands in Colorado, US. Using 141 grassland transects, we tested how soil C was related to plant species richness, grassland type, soil texture, and prairie dog presence. Soil C was significantly, positively related to plant species richness, while native perennial graminoid species richness exhibited an even stronger positive relationship. However, the relationship of soil C and plant richness was not found in all three grassland types studied, but instead was unique to the most common grassland type, mixed grass prairie, and absent from both xeric tallgrass and mesic tallgrass prairie. The presence of a single indicator species, Andropogon gerardii, showed a significant, positive relationship with soil carbon. Our best possible model explained 45% of the variance in soil C using species richness, grassland type, and their interaction. Surprisingly, soil C was negatively related to soil clay, suggesting that surface clays amplify evaporation and water runoff rather than protecting soil organic matter from decomposition. Soil C was negatively related to prairie dog presence, suggesting that prairie dogs do not enhance soil carbon sequestration; in fact, prairie dog occupied sites had significantly lower soil C, likely related to loss of topsoil from prairie dog colonies. Our results suggest that management for species richness provides the co-benefit of soil C storage, and high clay and prairie dog disturbance compromises both. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-021-04992-x.