A team of soil scientists led by Lancaster University researchers aims to reveal how forest soils take up and store differing amounts of carbon.
Forest soils contain vast amounts of carbon, and planting new trees and managing existing forests is seen as a critical strategy to mitigate the effects of global climate change.
It is commonly assumed that more trees equates to more carbon storage, but, scientist say, this assumption is too simplistic.
"Different types of tree have different impacts on the carbon content of soil, which is where most carbon is stored," said Professor David Johnson of Lancaster University and Principal Investigator on a new research project, 'Pushing the Frontiers: Resolving mechanisms regulating carbon storage in forest soils'.
"Different trees associate with different types of soil fungi and the different fungi can affect how much carbon is stored in the soils. The question is why?" added Professor Johnson.
Trees, such as oak, pines and beech, whose roots associate with a particular group of soil fungi called ectomycorrhizal fungi tend to be associated with soils that have lots of carbon compared to trees that associate with a different type called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, such as ash, yew and maple.
The scientists aim to uncover why below ground interactions between trees and soil fungi could be affecting how much carbon is being stored in the soil.
"We know little about how ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi interact to affect soil carbon," said Professor Johnson.
The issue is of increasing importance given how elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are changing and the scale of tree planting undertaken globally.
Tree biomass production generally increases in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, but how such responses translate to affect soil carbon pools in forests dominated by different mycorrhizal types is unknown.
Professor Johnson will work will colleagues from the University of Birmingham and the University of Liverpool on the three-year project which has received £942,000 of funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
