Priming effects in soils across Europe

Land use is a key factor driving changes in soil carbon (C) cycle and contents worldwide. The priming effect (PE)—CO2 emissions from changed soil organic matter decomposition in response to fresh C inputs—is one of the most unpredictable phenomena associated with C cycling and related nutrient mobilization. Yet, we know very little about the influence of land use on soil PE across contrasting environments. Here, we conducted a continental-scale study to (i) determine the PE induced by 13C-glucose additions to 126 cropland and seminatural (forests and grasslands) soils from 22 European countries; (ii) compare PE magnitude in soils under various crop types (i.e., cereals, nonpermanent industrial crops, and orchards); and (iii) model the environmental factors influencing PE. On average, PEs were negative in seminatural (with values ranging between −60 and 26 µg C g−1 soil after 35 days of incubation; median = −11) and cropland (from −55 to 27 µC g−1 soil; median = −4.3) soils, meaning that microbial communities preferentially switched from soil organic C decomposition to glucose mineralization. PE was significantly less negative in croplands compared with seminatural ecosystems and not influenced by the crop type. PE was driven by soil basal respiration (reflecting microbial activity), microbial biomass C, and soil organic C, which were all higher in seminatural ecosystems compared with croplands. This cross European experimental and modeling study elucidated that PE intensity is dependent on land use and allowed to clarify the factors regulating this important C cycling process. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.