Restoration Age Enhances Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Primarily Through Plant-derived Carbon in a Coastal Wetland

Restoration Age Enhances Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Primarily Through Plant-derived Carbon in a Coastal Wetland | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Restoration Age Enhances Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Primarily Through Plant-derived Carbon in a Coastal Wetland Qixue Cao, Xiaojie Wang, Mingliang Zhao, Qianqian Zhao, Xiaojing Chu, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6448189/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Plant and Soil → Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Aims Plant- and microbial-derived carbon (C) are the primary sources of soil organic carbon (SOC) in coastal wetlands, yet their contributions across vegetation restoration chronosequences remain poorly understood. Methods Using biomarker approaches, we investigated the dynamics of total lignin phenols (VSC) and microbial necromass C (MNC) in SOC over a 20-year restoration chronosequence (0, 4, 8, 11, and 20 years) in the Yellow River Delta of China. Results Vegetation restoration significantly increased VSC and MNC contents, but both showed unimodal patterns with age and peaked at 8 years. Restoration age significantly increased VSC contributions to SOC (1.9–7.1%) but had limited effects on MNC, which averaged 28.64%—lower than anticipated. The contents of VSC, MNC, vanillyl phenols, syringyl phenols, cinnamyl phenols, fungal necromass C (FNC) and microbial biomass C (MBC) were positively correlated with SOC content. However, Bacterial necromass C (BNC) showed no significant correlation with SOC. Plant coverage and soil C/N ratio were the main drivers of C source changes, showing significant positive and negative linear relationships with VSC and MNC content, respectively. Structural equation model showed that plant-derived C is the most important driver of SOC, while microbial-derived C has a significant negative effect on SOC. Conclusions Although both VSC and MNC had a positive response to restoration age, Increasing plant-derived C affected by plant cover and biomass is the main driver of enhanced SOC sequestration in coastal wetlands, compared to microbial-derived C. coastal wetlands restoration age soil organic carbon lignin phenols microbial necromass carbon Full Text Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Plant and Soil → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revisions 17 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Apr, 2025 Editor invited by journal 17 Apr, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 16 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 15 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6448189","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":447307648,"identity":"ec5400ef-541c-4c94-b5de-c71c64bed4a4","order_by":0,"name":"Qixue 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Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"coastal wetlands, restoration age, soil organic carbon, lignin phenols, microbial necromass carbon","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6448189/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6448189/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003ch2\u003eAims\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlant- and microbial-derived carbon (C) are the primary sources of soil organic carbon (SOC) in coastal wetlands, yet their contributions across vegetation restoration chronosequences remain poorly understood.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMethods\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eUsing biomarker approaches, we investigated the dynamics of total lignin phenols (VSC) and microbial necromass C (MNC) in SOC over a 20-year restoration chronosequence (0, 4, 8, 11, and 20 years) in the Yellow River Delta of China.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eResults\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eVegetation restoration significantly increased VSC and MNC contents, but both showed unimodal patterns with age and peaked at 8 years. Restoration age significantly increased VSC contributions to SOC (1.9\u0026ndash;7.1%) but had limited effects on MNC, which averaged 28.64%\u0026mdash;lower than anticipated. The contents of VSC, MNC, vanillyl phenols, syringyl phenols, cinnamyl phenols, fungal necromass C (FNC) and microbial biomass C (MBC) were positively correlated with SOC content. However, Bacterial necromass C (BNC) showed no significant correlation with SOC. Plant coverage and soil C/N ratio were the main drivers of C source changes, showing significant positive and negative linear relationships with VSC and MNC content, respectively. Structural equation model showed that plant-derived C is the most important driver of SOC, while microbial-derived C has a significant negative effect on SOC.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eConclusions\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough both VSC and MNC had a positive response to restoration age, Increasing plant-derived C affected by plant cover and biomass is the main driver of enhanced SOC sequestration in coastal wetlands, compared to microbial-derived C.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Restoration Age Enhances Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Primarily Through Plant-derived Carbon in a Coastal Wetland","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-28 03:19:08","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6448189/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Major revisions","date":"2025-06-18T02:30:10+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"","date":"2025-05-07T04:02:51+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-24T07:30:33+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"Plant and Soil","date":"2025-04-17T22:29:49+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-04-17T00:37:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Plant and Soil","date":"2025-04-15T12:34:58+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"plant-and-soil","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"plso","sideBox":"Learn more about [Plant and Soil](https://www.springer.com/journal/11104)","snPcode":"11104","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11104/3","title":"Plant and Soil","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"0e6d30f0-d29f-4a69-a3a3-14bbb05757b9","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 28th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-08T16:09:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6448189","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-08029-7","journal":{"identity":"plant-and-soil","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Plant and Soil"},"publishedOn":"2025-12-02 15:57:12","publishedOnDateReadable":"December 2nd, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-28 03:19:08","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s11104-025-08029-7","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-08029-7","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6448189","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6448189","identity":"rs-6448189","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}