Plant diversity and microbial interaction on soil carbon stock in the tropical homegardens: a nature-based solution to climate change

• Published in: Agroforestry systems 2025-02, Vol.99 (2), p.29-29, Article 29
• Main Authors: Tom, Athulya, Divya Vijayan, V., Kunhamu, T. K., Sandeep, S., Surendra Gopal, K., Jamaludheen, V., Vishnu, B. R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; agroecology; Agroforestry; Biological activity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon; Carbon cycle; Carbon sequestration; carbon sinks; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Cluster analysis; Euclidean geometry; Forestry; Forests; fungi; home gardens; India; Land management; Land use; Land use planning; Laterites; Life Sciences; Microbial activity; Microorganisms; Nutrient cycles; Organic carbon; Organic soils; Plant diversity; soil organic carbon; species diversity; Sustainability management; sustainable land management; trees
• ISSN: 0167-4366; 1572-9680
• DOI: 10.1007/s10457-025-01135-6

Understanding relationship between plant diversity, microbial activity and carbon sequestration is crucial for mitigating climate change and promoting sustainable land management, particularly in agroforestry systems such as homegardens. This study evaluated five Land Management Type (LMT) which consist of three homegarden classes: Small Homegardens (SHG) (less than 0.2 ha), Medium Homegardens (MHG) (0.2–0.4 ha), and Large Homegardens (LHG) (more than 0.4 ha), forest area (Fo) a natural land use, and a treeless open area (TrO) in the North central laterite Agro-Ecological Unit of Kerala, India for assessing their impact on soil carbon, nutrient cycling, tree diversity, and microbial activity. Plant diversity was found to be highest in the forest (22.85 ± 0.06) and was on par with small homegardens (SHG) (2.71 ± 0.0), which exceeded the diversity observed in medium (MHG) and large homegardens (LHG). Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock up to a depth of 1 m was highest in forest (202.21 Mg C ha −1 ), which was on par with SHG (157.62 Mg C ha −1 ), and significantly different from MHG (135.79 Mg C ha −1 ), followed by LHG (119.60 Mg C ha −1 ) and TrO (24.29 Mg C ha −1 ). Microbial activity also followed the same trend for the bacterial and fungal population. A Hierarchical cluster analysis based on euclidean distance grouped the five LMT into four clusters, among that the MHG and LHG falls into single cluster due to its similarities. From the PCA and the inter cluster distances, the SHG exhibited characteristics that closely resemble natural forests, as compared to other three LMT.