Tree diversity enhances soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration in natural forests

Biodiversity experiments show that a high diversity of plants increases the accumulation of soil carbon and nitrogen, but whether such conclusions hold in natural ecosystems is debated. An analysis of Canada’s National Forest Inventory provides strong evidence that the build-up of soil carbon and nitrogen on a decadal timescale increased with improved tree diversity in natural forest ecosystems. Analysis of a large forestry data set extends experimental findings to natural ecosystems.