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Radiocarbon measurements provide a powerful tool to assess the persistence of soil organic carbon (SOC). While soil depth is generally one of the most important predictors of soil radiocarbon age, it remains unclear whether this relationship is due to an overall decrease in C input with depth or to changing importance of climatic or mineralogical constraints on SOC decomposition. Due to this lack of mechanistic understanding, we argue that the relationship between soil radiocarbon age and SOC abundance may be a better proxy than depth to investigate SOC persistence. To test this hypothesis, we use globally collected soil radiocarbon data from the International Soil Radiocarbon Database (ISRaD) to examine the influence of climate and soil mineralogy on the relationship between SOC concentration and radiocarbon age at the profile level. Our analysis includes about 600 soil profiles covering all major climatic zones and soil types (except aridisols). We show that extreme climatic and mineralogical constraints can lead to a similar accumulation of old SOC throughout the soil profile but for very different reasons. Climatic extremes include soils from tundra/polar regions where C input and decomposition are constrained by low temperatures and water availability. Mineralogical extremes include volcanic soils (andisols) that are dominated by highly reactive amorphous minerals that limit SOC accessibility. Across all climate zones and for a given SOC concentration, arid soils tend to have younger radiocarbon ages compared to temperate soils. Tropical soils have the youngest SOC at the surface due to high C input and show a relatively uniform distribution of SOC and radiocarbon ages globally. In terms of mineralogy, soils dominated by low-activity clays (oxisols and ultisols) show younger radiocarbon ages than soils dominated by high-activity clays (all other soil types except andisols) for a given SOC concentration. These first results have far-reaching implications for better understanding SOC vulnerability and benchmarking soil carbon models for representing SOC turnover and persistence across climate zones and soil types.

Understanding the controls on the amount and persistence of soil organic carbon (C) is essential for predicting its sensitivity to global change. The response may depend on whether C is unprotected, isolated within aggregates, or protected from decomposition by mineral associations. Here, we present a global synthesis of the relative influence of environmental factors on soil organic C partitioning among pools, abundance in each pool (mg C g-1 soil), and persistence (as approximated by radiocarbon abundance) in relatively unprotected particulate and protected mineral-bound pools. We show that C within particulate and mineral-associated pools consistently differed from one another in degree of persistence and relationship to environmental factors. Soil depth was the best predictor of C abundance and persistence, though it accounted for more variance in persistence. Persistence of all C pools decreased with increasing mean annual temperature (MAT) throughout the soil profile whereas persistence increased with increasing wetness index (MAP/PET) in subsurface soils (30-176 cm). The relationship of C abundance (mg C g-1 soil) to climate varied among pools and with depth. Mineral-associated C in surface soils (

Carbon (C) in soils persists on a range of timescales that depend on physical, chemical and biological processes that interact with soil organic matter (SOM) and affect its rate of decomposition. Together these processes determine the age distribution of C. Most attempts to measure this age distribution have relied on operationally defined fractions using properties like density, aggregate stability, solubility, or chemical reactivity. Recently, thermal fractionation, which relies on the activation energy needed to combust SOM, shows promise in separating young from old C by applying increasing heat to decompose SOM and equate this with biochemical stability in soil. Here, we investigated radiocarbon (14C) released during thermal fractionation to reconstruct thermal stabilities and age distributions of C released from bulk soil as well as its component density and chemical fractions. We found that bulk soil and all density and chemical fractions released progressively older C as temperatures increased. In addition, all fractions released some C across the entire temperature range, indicating that bulk soil thermal fractionations integrate young and old C at all temperatures. In the bulk soil, age distribution could be identifed by isolating particulate C prior to thermal fractionation of mineral-associated SOM. For the Podzol analyzed here, thermal fractions confirmed that ~95 % of the mineral-associated organic matter (MOM) had a relatively narrow 14C distribution, while 5 % was very low in 14C and likely reflected C from the < 2mm parent shale material in the soil matrix. By first removing particulate C using density or size separation, thermal fractionation can provide a rapid technique to study the age structure of MOM and how it is influenced by different OM-mineral interactions.

Permafrost thaw will release additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere resulting in a positive feedback to climate change. However, the mineralization dynamics of organic matter (OM) stored in permafrost-affected soils remain unclear. We used physical soil fractionation, radiocarbon measurements, incubation experiments, and a dynamic decomposition model to identify distinct vertical pattern in OM decomposability. The observed differences reflect the type of OM input to the subsoil, either by cryoturbation or otherwise, e.g. by advective water-borne transport of dissolved OM. In non-cryoturbated subsoil horizons, most OM is stabilized at mineral surfaces or by occlusion in aggregates. In contrast, pockets of OM-rich cryoturbated soil contain sufficient free particulate OM for microbial decomposition. After thaw, OM turnover is as fast as in the upper active layer. Since cryoturbated soils store ca. 450 Pg carbon, identifying differences in decomposability according to such translocation processes has large implications for the future global carbon cycle and climate, and directs further process model development.

In the age of big data, soil data are more available and richer than ever, but-outside of a few large soil survey resources-they remain largely unusable for informing soil management and understanding Earth system processes beyond the original study. Data science has promised a fully reusable research pipeline where data from past studies are used to contextualize new findings and reanalyzed for new insight. Yet synthesis projects encounter challenges at all steps of the data reuse pipeline, including unavailable data, labor-intensive transcription of datasets, incomplete metadata, and a lack of communication between collaborators. Here, using insights from a diversity of soil, data, and climate scientists, we summarize current practices in soil data synthesis across all stages of database creation: availability, input, harmonization, curation, and publication. We then suggest new soil-focused semantic tools to improve existing data pipelines, such as ontologies, vocabulary lists, and community practices. Our goal is to provide the soil data community with an overview of current practices in soil data and where we need to go to fully leverage big data to solve soil problems in the next century., Biogeosciences, 19 (14), ISSN:1726-4170

Over the last three decades, most of the 25 million hectares of tropical peatlands in Southeast Asia have been deforested and drained. As a consequence, declining water tables are exposing peat to oxidation, converting plant material accumulated over millennia to carbon dioxide, and causing land subsidence. Here, we quantify the widespread peat carbon loss by using InSAR remote sensing to map subsidence at 90-m resolution across 2.7 Mha of peatland area from 2007 to 2011. Over 90% of the surveyed area is subsiding, with a mean rate of 2.2 cm yr−1. Consequently, the region now faces loss of productive land and flooding because many peatlands are near sea level. Our measurements reveal that smallholder agricultural areas and degraded peatlands are subsiding at rates comparable to those of plantations, and that subsidence rates increase away from rivers and decrease over time following drainage. Because of its detailed spatial resolution, InSAR provides a valuable tool to identify emissions by land use and geography and to target hotspots for better management. Finally, we use remotely sensed maps to update IPCC emissions factors and calculate regional CO2 emissions from peat oxidation of 155 ± 30 MtC yr−1 in 2015, similar in magnitude to both regional fossil-fuel emissions and peat fires. Subsidence and carbon emissions in tropical peatlands are primarily linked to drainage history, not land-use type, according to large-scale high-resolution remote sensing in Southeast Asia.

Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth, and their water storage dynamics strongly control these carbon stocks. The hydrological functioning of tropical peatlands differs from that of northern peatlands, which has not yet been accounted for in global land surface models (LSMs). Here, we integrated tropical peat-specific hydrology modules into a global LSM for the first time, by utilizing the peatland-specific model structure adaptation (PEATCLSM) of the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM). We developed literature-based parameter sets for natural (PEATCLSMTrop,Nat) and drained (PEATCLSMTrop,Drain) tropical peatlands. Simulations with PEATCLSMTrop,Nat were compared against those with the default CLSM version and the northern version of PEATCLSM (PEATCLSMNorth,Nat) with tropical vegetation input. All simulations were forced with global meteorological reanalysis input data for the major tropical peatland regions in Central and South America, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia. The evaluation against a unique and extensive data set of in situ water level and eddy covariance-derived evapotranspiration showed an overall improvement in bias and correlation compared to the default CLSM version. Over Southeast Asia, an additional simulation with PEATCLSMTrop,Drain was run to address the large fraction of drained tropical peatlands in this region. PEATCLSMTrop,Drain outperformed CLSM, PEATCLSMNorth,Nat, and PEATCLSMTrop,Nat over drained sites. Despite the overall improvements of PEATCLSMTrop,Nat over CLSM, there are strong differences in performance between the three study regions. We attribute these performance differences to regional differences in accuracy of meteorological forcing data, and differences in peatland hydrologic response that are not yet captured by our model. ispartof: Journal Of Advances In Modeling Earth Systems vol:14 issue:3 ispartof: location:United States status: Published online

Peatlands contain a significant fraction of global soil carbon, but how these reservoirs will respond to the changing climate is still relatively unknown. A global picture of the variations in peat organic matter chemistry will aid our ability to gauge peatland soil response to climate. The goal of this research is to test the hypotheses that 1) peat carbohydrate content, an indicator of soil organic matter reactivity, will increase with latitude and decrease with mean annual temperatures (MAT), 2) while peat aromatic content, an indicator of recalcitrance, will vary inversely, and 3) elevation will have a similar effect to latitude. We used Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to examine variations in the organic matter functional groups of 1034 peat samples collected from 10-20, 30-40, and 60-70 cm depths at 165 individual sites across a latitudinal gradient of 79˚N to 65˚S and from elevations of 0 to 4773 meters. Carbohydrate contents of high latitude peat were significantly greater than peat originating near the equator, while aromatic content showed the opposite trend. For peat from similar latitudes but different elevations, the carbohydrate content was greater and aromatic content was lower at higher elevations. Higher carbohydrate content at higher latitudes indicates a greater potential for mineralization, whereas the chemical composition of low latitude peat is consistent with their apparent relative stability in the face of warmer temperatures. The combination of low carbohydrates and high aromatics at warmer locations near the equator suggests the mineralization of high latitude peat until reaching recalcitrance under a new temperature regime.

The atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) burden is rising sharply, but the causes are still not well understood. One factor of uncertainty is the importance of tropical CH 4 emissions into the global mix. Isotopic signatures of major sources remain poorly constrained, despite their usefulness in constraining the global methane budget. Here, a collection of new δ 13 C CH 4 signatures is presented for a range of tropical wetlands and rice fields determined from air samples collected during campaigns from 2016 to 2020. Long-term monitoring of δ 13 C CH 4 in ambient air has been conducted at the Chacaltaya observatory, Bolivia and Southern Botswana. Both long-term records are dominated by biogenic CH 4 sources, with isotopic signatures expected from wetland sources. From the longer-term Bolivian record, a seasonal isotopic shift is observed corresponding to wetland extent suggesting that there is input of relatively isotopically light CH 4 to the atmosphere during periods of reduced wetland extent. This new data expands the geographical extent and range of measurements of tropical wetland and rice δ 13 C CH 4 sources and hints at significant seasonal variation in tropical wetland δ 13 C CH 4 signatures which may be important to capture in future global and regional models. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)’.

The radiocarbon signature of respired CO2 (∆14C‐CO2) measured in laboratory soil incubations integrates contributions from soil carbon pools with a wide range of ages, making it a powerful model constraint. Incubating archived soils enriched by “bomb‐C” from mid‐20th century nuclear weapons testing would be even more powerful as it would enable us to trace this pulse over time. However, air‐drying and subsequent rewetting of archived soils, as well as storage duration, may alter the relative contribution to respiration from soil carbon pools with different cycling rates. We designed three experiments to assess air‐drying and rewetting effects on ∆14C‐CO2 with constant storage duration (Experiment 1), without storage (Experiment 2), and with variable storage duration (Experiment 3). We found that air‐drying and rewetting led to small but significant (α, Plain Language Summary: Soils play a key role in the global carbon cycle by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere for decades to millennia. However, it is unclear if they will continue to do so as the climate changes. Microbial decomposition of soil organic matter returns carbon back to the atmosphere, and radiocarbon dating of this returning CO2 (∆14C‐CO2) can be used to quantify how long carbon is stored in ecosystems. Incubating archived soils could provide unique insight into soil carbon sequestration potential by quantifying the change in ∆14C‐CO2 over time. However, air‐drying, duration of archiving, and subsequent rewetting of soils may bias estimates of sequestration potential by altering the balance of younger versus older carbon leaving the soil. We compared ∆14C‐CO2 from soils incubated with and without air‐drying and archiving, and found that the air‐dried soils appeared to release slightly older carbon than soils that had never been air‐dried. The amount of time the soils were archived did not have an effect. Since the bias from air‐drying and rewetting was small, incubating archived soils appears to be a promising technique for improving our ability to model soil carbon cycling under global climate change., Key Points: ∆14C of CO2 measured in incubations of archived soils provides additional constraints for soil carbon models. Air‐drying and rewetting soils shifted the ∆14C of respired CO2 by 10‰–20‰ independent of the duration of storage. Differences in direction and magnitude of ∆14C‐CO2 shifts between forests and grasslands depended on sampling year and system C dynamics., EC, H2020, H2020 Priority Excellent Science, H2020 European Research Council (ERC) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4959705

On the African continent, the population is expected to expand fourfold in the next century, which will increasingly impact the global carbon cycle and biodiversity conservation. Therefore, it is of vital importance to understand how carbon stocks and community assembly recover after slash-and-burn events in tropical second growth forests. We inventoried a chronosequence of 15 1-ha plots in lowland tropical forest of the central Congo Basin and evaluated changes in aboveground and soil organic carbon stocks and in tree species diversity, functional composition, and community-weighted functional traits with succession. We aimed to track long-term recovery trajectories of species and carbon stocks in secondary forests, comparing 5 to 200 + year old secondary forest with reference primary forest. Along the successional gradient, the functional composition followed a trajectory from resource acquisition to resource conservation, except for nitrogen-related leaf traits. Despite a fast, initial recovery of species diversity and functional composition, there were still important structural and carbon stock differences between old growth secondary and pristine forest, which suggests that a full recovery of secondary forests might take much longer than currently shown. As such, the aboveground carbon stocks of 200 + year old forest were only 57% of those in the pristine reference forest, which suggests a slow recovery of aboveground carbon stocks, although more research is needed to confirm this observation. The results of this study highlight the need for more in-depth studies on forest recovery in Central Africa, to gain insight into the processes that control biodiversity and carbon stock recovery.

Recent compilations of global soil radiocarbon data suggest that current Earth System Models underestimate the mean age of soil carbon (C). The discrepancy between data-derived estimates and model calculations might be due to an inadequate representation of processes that control C persistence in soils – especially in understudied regions.Here, we investigate the relationships between soil mineralogy, soil properties, climate and radiocarbon (Δ14C) in soils sampled as part of a comprehensive soil survey (AfSIS) for sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 510 samples were analyzed, comprised of soils collected from two depths (0–20 cm and 20–50 cm) at 30 sites in 14 countries. To determine soil mineralogy, we analyzed X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data, which provides a precise and detailed mineralogical signature of each soil sample. The studied soil profiles vary greatly in their mineralogy, reflecting a diverse range of parent materials and soil forming factors.The median soil C age is 182 years in the topsoils and 563 years in the subsoils, corresponding to a total Δ14C value range of -432 to 95 ‰. In general, Δ14C values decrease (older mean C ages) with increasing clay particle size fractions. This corresponds to an increase in short range-order minerals expressed as oxalate-extractable aluminum and iron (Alox and Feox). Separately, mineralogically defined variables – derived from the XRPD data using principal component analysis – are found to correlate strongly with a range of soil properties (pH, weathering status, exchangeable calcium, Alox and Feox, and soil texture) and climatic variables (aridity index and mean annual temperature). This provides a holistic assessment of the processes that have formed each soil along with the properties that it currently exhibits. Our analyses with random forests show that these XRPD-derived mineralogical variables alone can explain up to 30% of the variation in Δ14C across sub-Saharan Africa. They also allow the identification of specific minerals that contribute to this variation and how they are linked to the C mean age of the soil. In conclusion, our results suggest that soil mineral data can help to better understand C persistence in subtropical and tropical soils.

Tropical forest soils are a vital component of the global carbon (C) cycle and their response to environmental change will determine future atmospheric carbon dioxides (CO2). For example, increasing biomass productivity in tropical forests suggests a potential sink for C. However, its storage and stability are driven by factors acting from small to large scale. For tropical Africa, these factors are not well known and documented. Predicting tropical soil C dynamics ultimately depends on our understanding and the ability to determine the primary environmental controls on soil organic carbon content and respiration.Here, using samples collected along strong geochemical gradients in the East African Rift Valley, we demonstrate how soil chemistry and soil fertility, derived from the geochemical composition of soil parent material, can drive soil respiration even in deeply weathered soils. To address the drivers of soil respiration, we incubated soils from three regions with contrasting geochemistry (mafic, felsic, and mixed sedimentary). For three soil depths, we measured the potential maximum heterotrophic respiration as well as the radiocarbon isotopic signature (Δ14C) of the bulk soil and respired CO2 under stable environmental conditions. We found that soil microbial communities were able to mineralize C from fossil as well as other poor quality C sources under laboratory conditions representative of tropical topsoils. Despite similarities in terms of climate, vegetation, and the size of soil C stocks, soil respiration showed distinct patterns with soil depth and parent material geochemistry. Our study shows that soil fertility conditions are the main determinant of C stability in tropical forest soils. Further, in the presence of organic carbon sources of poor quality or the presence of strong mineral-related C stabilization, microorganisms tend to discriminate against these sources in favor of more accessible forms of soil organic matter as energy sources, resulting in a slower rate of C cycling. Our results demonstrate that even in deeply weathered tropical soils, parent material has a long-lasting effect on soil chemistry that can influence and control microbial activity, the size of subsoil C stocks, and the turnover of C in soil. Soil parent material and its lasting control on soil chemistry need to be taken into account to understand and predict C stabilization and rates of C cycling in tropical forest soils.

Tracing ‘bomb’ radiocarbon produced by atmospheric testing of atomic weapons through vegetation and soils provides information of the dynamics of terrestrial carbon cycling on timescales of years to centuries. Processes operating on these timescales are of interest because they regulate key functions in long-lived plants and regulate the potential for increasing soil carbon storage. However, the multiple pathways taken by carbon transiting ecosystems from photosynthesis to respiration and decomposition complicate the quantitative interpretation of radiocarbon observations. In the 14Constraint project, we are exploring how to optimize measurements of radiocarbon as well as to improve their interpretation by providing constraints for comparison with models. This talk will focus on efforts to synthesize global radiocarbon measurements of mean age and transit time, and suggest ways forward to improve process-level understanding., EGUsphere

Drainage canals associated with logging and agriculture dry out organic soils in tropical peatlands, thereby threatening the viability of long-term carbon stores due to increased emissions from dec...

Peatlands represent large terrestrial carbon banks. Given that most peat accumulates in boreal regions, where low temperatures and water saturation preserve organic matter, the existence of peat in (sub)tropical regions remains enigmatic. Here we examined peat and plant chemistry across a latitudinal transect from the Arctic to the tropics. Near-surface low-latitude peat has lower carbohydrate and greater aromatic content than near-surface high-latitude peat, creating a reduced oxidation state and resulting recalcitrance. This recalcitrance allows peat to persist in the (sub)tropics despite warm temperatures. Because we observed similar declines in carbohydrate content with depth in high-latitude peat, our data explain recent field-scale deep peat warming experiments in which catotelm (deeper) peat remained stable despite temperature increases up to 9 °C. We suggest that high-latitude deep peat reservoirs may be stabilized in the face of climate change by their ultimately lower carbohydrate and higher aromatic composition, similar to tropical peats., Large peatlands exist at high latitudes because flooded conditions and cold temperatures slow decomposition, so the presence of (sub)tropical peat is enigmatic. Here the authors show that low-latitude peat is preserved due to lower carbohydrate and greater aromatic content resulting in chemical recalcitrance.

Heterotrophic soil respiration is an important component of the global terrestrial carbon (C) cycle, driven by environmental factors acting from local to continental scales. For tropical Africa, these factors and their interactions remain largely unknown. Here, using samples collected along strong topographic and geochemical gradients in the East African Rift Valley, we study how soil chemistry and soil fertility, derived from the geochemical composition of soil parent material, can drive soil respiration even after many millennia of weathering and soil development. To address the drivers of soil respiration, we incubated soils from three regions with contrasting geochemistry (mafic, felsic, and mixed sedimentary) sampled along slope gradients. For three soil depths, we measured the potential maximum heterotrophic respiration under stable environmental conditions as well as the radiocarbon content (Δ14C) of the bulk soil and respired CO2. We found that soil microbial communities were able to mineralize C from fossil as well as other poor quality C sources under laboratory conditions representative of tropical topsoils. Furthermore, despite similarities in terms of climate, vegetation, and the size of soil C stocks, soil respiration showed distinct patterns with soil depth and parent material geochemistry. The topographic origin of our samples was not a main determinant of the observed respiration rates and Δ14C. In situ, however, soil hydrological conditions likely influence soil C stability by inhibiting decomposition in valley subsoils. Our study shows that soil fertility conditions are the main determinant of C stability in tropical forest soils. Further, in the presence of organic carbon sources of poor quality or the presence of strong mineral related C stabilization, microorganisms tend to discriminate against these sources in favor of more accessible forms of soil organic matter as energy sources, resulting in a slower rate of C cycling. Our results demonstrate that even in deeply weathered tropical soils, parent material has a long-lasting effect on soil chemistry that can influence and control microbial activity, the size of subsoil C stocks, and the turnover of C in soil. Soil parent material and its lasting control on soil chemistry need to be taken into account to understand and predict C stabilization and rates of C cycling in tropical forest soils., Soil Discussions

Managed grasslands have the potential to store carbon (C) and partially mitigate climate change. However, it remains difficult to predict potential C storage under a given soil or management practice. To study C storage dynamics due to long-term (1952–2009) phosphorus (P) fertilizer and irrigation treatments in New Zealand grasslands, we measured radiocarbon (14C) in archived soil along with observed changes in C stocks to constrain a compartmental soil model. Productivity increases from P application and irrigation in these trials resulted in very similar C accumulation rates between 1959 and 2009. The ∆14C changes over the same time period were similar in plots that were both irrigated and fertilized, and only differed in a non-irrigated fertilized plot. Model results indicated that decomposition rates of fast cycling C (0.1 to 0.2 year−1) increased to nearly offset increases in inputs. With increasing P fertilization, decomposition rates also increased in the slow pool (0.005 to 0.008 year−1). Our findings show sustained, significant (i.e. greater than 4 per mille) increases in C stocks regardless of treatment or inputs. As the majority of fresh inputs remain in the soil for less than 10 years, these long term increases reflect dynamics of the slow pool. Additionally, frequent irrigation was associated with reduced stocks and increased decomposition of fresh plant material. Rates of C gain and decay highlight trade-offs between productivity, nutrient availability, and soil C sequestration as a climate change mitigation strategy.

Peatlands are impacted by climate and land-use changes, with feedback to warming by acting as either sources or sinks of carbon. Expert elicitation combined with literature review reveals key drivers of change that alter peatland carbon dynamics, with implications for improving models. The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies. By using evidence synthesized from the literature and an expert elicitation, we define and quantify the leading drivers of change that have impacted peatland carbon stocks during the Holocene and predict their effect during this century and in the far future. We also identify uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the scientific community and provide insight towards better integration of peatlands into modelling frameworks. Given the importance of the contribution by peatlands to the global carbon cycle, this study shows that peatland science is a critical research area and that we still have a long way to go to fully understand the peatland-carbon-climate nexus.

The magnitude of future emissions of greenhouse gases from the northern permafrost region depends crucially on the mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) that has accumulated over millennia in these perennially frozen soils. Many recent studies have used radiocarbon (14C) to quantify the release of this “old” SOC as CO2 or CH4 to the atmosphere or as dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC) to surface waters. We compiled ~1,900 14C measurements from 51 sites in the northern permafrost region to assess the vulnerability of thawing SOC in tundra, forest, peatland, lake, and river ecosystems. We found that growing season soil 14C‐CO2 emissions generally had a modern (post‐1950s) signature, but that well‐drained, oxic soils had increased CO2 emissions derived from older sources following recent thaw. The age of CO2 and CH4 emitted from lakes depended primarily on the age and quantity of SOC in sediments and on the mode of emission, and indicated substantial losses of previously frozen SOC from actively expanding thermokarst lakes. Increased fluvial export of aged DOC and POC occurred from sites where permafrost thaw caused soil thermal erosion. There was limited evidence supporting release of previously frozen SOC as CO2, CH4, and DOC from thawing peatlands with anoxic soils. This synthesis thus suggests widespread but not universal release of permafrost SOC following thaw. We show that different definitions of “old” sources among studies hamper the comparison of vulnerability of permafrost SOC across ecosystems and disturbances. We also highlight opportunities for future 14C studies in the permafrost region., Key Points: We compiled ~1,900 14C measurements of CO2, CH4, DOC, and POC from the northern permafrost region. Old carbon release increases in thawed oxic soils (CO2), thermokarst lakes (CH4 and CO2), and headwaters with thermal erosion (DOC and POC). Simultaneous and year‐long 14C analyses of CO2, CH4, DOC, and POC are needed to assess the vulnerability of permafrost carbon across ecosystems., EC | H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (ERC) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663, Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000038, National Science Foundation (NSF) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001

Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined. An increased flow of carbon from the atmosphere into soil pools could help mitigate anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and climate change. Yet we do not know how quickly soils might respond because the age distribution of soil carbon is uncertain. Here we used 789 radiocarbon (∆14C) profiles, along with other geospatial information, to create globally gridded datasets of mineral soil ∆14C and mean age. We found that soil depth is a primary driver of ∆14C, whereas climate (for example, mean annual temperature) is a major control on the spatial pattern of ∆14C in surface soil. Integrated to a depth of 1 m, global soil carbon has a mean age of 4,830 ± 1,730 yr, with older carbon in deeper layers and permafrost regions. In contrast, vertically resolved land models simulate ∆14C values that imply younger carbon ages and a more rapid carbon turnover. Our data-derived estimates of older mean soil carbon age suggest that soils will accumulate less carbon than predicted by current Earth system models over the twenty-first century. Reconciling these models with the global distribution of soil radiocarbon will require a better representation of the mechanisms that control carbon persistence in soils. Soils may accumulate less carbon and with a slower turnover than Earth system models predict, according to analysis of the age distribution of global soil carbon, which finds that the mean age of soil carbon is older than that in simulated in models.

Worldwide, peatlands are important sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and trace metals (TM) to surface waters and these fluxes may increase with peatland degradation. In Southeast Asia, tropical peatlands are being rapidly deforested and drained. The black rivers draining these peatland areas have high concentrations of DOM. However, the fate of this fluvial carbon export is uncertain, and its role as a trace metal carrier has never been investigated. This work aims to address these gaps in our understanding of tropical peatland DOM and associated elements in the context of degraded tropical peatlands of Indonesian Borneo. We quantified dissolved organic carbon and trace metals concentrations in the dissolved, fine colloidal and coarse colloidal fractions and determined the characteristics (optical and isotopic) of the peatland-derived DOM as it drains from peatland canals, flows along black river and eventually mixes with the Kapuas Kecil River before meeting the ocean near the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Black rivers draining degraded peatlands show significantly higher concentrations of Al, Fe, Pb, As, Ni, and Cd, compared the white river. A strong association is observed between DOM, Fe, As, Cd and Zn in the dissolved and fine colloid fraction, while Al is associated to Pb and Ni and present in a higher proportion in the coarse colloidal fraction. We additionally measured the isotopic composition of lead released from degraded tropical peatlands for the first time and show that Pb originates from anthropogenic atmospheric deposition. Degraded tropical peatlands are important sources of DOM and trace metals to rivers and a secondary source of atmospherically deposited contaminants.

Tropical peatlands have the potential to be significant sources of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere but their contribution to the global methane budget remains uncertain. Although much prior work has focused in Southeast Asia, other tropical regions, such as the Congo and the Amazon, have a much wider diversity of peatlands with more variable CH4 emissions. Our work aims to better understand CH4 production and emissions in these diverse peatlands, and how they are controlled by hydrology, geochemistry and vegetation. Using stable isotope and radiocarbon measurements, we assess the production pathway for methanogenesis and its carbon source at sites across the Pastaza-Marañon basin in Peru. As the largest peatland complex in the Amazon, this region is home to many peatland types, from palm swamps to open peatlands to pole forests. We find clear links between site geochemistry, hydrology, and CH4 production. In rain-fed ombrotrophic sites (pH 3-4), we observe low emissions and highly depleted δ13CH4 values (as low as -100‰). The lack of external nutrients and acidic conditions likely limit methanogenesis, and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis dominates. In more minerotrophic sites (pH 5-6), more enriched methane (-75 to -60‰) suggests a contribution from acetoclastic methanogenesis. Emissions rates are also higher, likely fueled by external nutrient inputs from seasonal flooding. Across sites, modern, vegetation-derived inputs are the dominant carbon source for methanogenesis, with a limited contribution from old peat carbon in some ombrotrophic sites. The strong relationships we observe between peatland hydrology, vegetation, geochemistry and methane emissions will enable future work to upscale methane emissions across the region.

Tropical ecosystems and the soils therein have been reported as one of the most important and largest terrestrial carbon (C) pools and are considered important climate regulator. Carbon stabilization mechanisms in these ecosystems are often complex, as these mechanisms crucially rely on the interplay of geology, topography, climate, and biology. Future predictions of the perturbation of the soil carbon pool ultimately depend on our mechanistic understanding of these complex interactions. Using laboratory incubation experiments, we investigated if carbon release from soils through heterotrophic respiration in the African highland forests of the Eastern Congo Basin follows predictable patterns related to topography, soil depth or geochemical soil properties that can be described at the landscape scale and ultimately be used to improve the spatial accuracy of soil C respiration in mechanistic models. In general, soils developed on basalt and granite parent material (mafic and felsic geochemistry of parent material) showed significantly (p, EGUsphere

Drainage canals are a potentially important source of methane from tropical peatlands. Groundwater flow transports dissolved methane to canals, where it has the potential to escape to the atmosphere. However, these emissions are poorly characterized, and the extent to which methane is oxidised before being emitted to the atmosphere is unknown. In this study, we present preliminary data from a deforested tropical peatland in Brunei Darussalam. We use measurements of stable carbon isotopes to track methane production in the peatland. To determine the fraction of methane which is emitted vs. oxidized in a canal draining the site, we use measurements of the δ13C and δD of CH4 in ditch water samples as well as surface gas samples. In addition, we monitor outflow and oxygen content in the ditch. Together, these measurements, in combination with a reactive transport hydrological model will enable us to estimate methane production, oxidation and fluvial export.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key component of terrestrial ecosystems. Experimental studies have shown that soil texture and geochemistry have a strong effect on carbon stocks. However, those findings primarily rely on data from temperate regions or use model approaches that are often based on limited data from tropical and sub-tropical regions. Here, we evaluate the controls on soil carbon stocks in Africa, using a dataset of 1,580 samples. These were collected across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) within the framework of the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) project, which was built on the well-established Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF). Samples were taken from two depths (0–20 cm and 20–50 cm) at 46 LDSF sites that were stratified according to Koeppen-Geiger climate zones. The different pH-values, clay content, exchangeable cations and extractable elements across various soils of the different climatic zones (i.e. from arid to humid (sub)tropical) allow us to identify different soil and climate parameters that best explain SOC variance across SSA. We tested if these SOC predictors differed across climatological conditions, using the ratio of potential evapotranspiration (PET) to mean annual precipitation (MAP) as indicator. For water-limited regions (PET/MAP > 1), the best predictors were climatic variables, likely because of their effect on the quantity of carbon inputs. Geochemistry dominated SOC storage in energy-limited systems (PET/MAP < 1), reflecting its effect on carbon protection. On a continental scale, climate (e.g. PET) is key to predicting SOC content in topsoil, whereas geochemistry, particularly iron-oxyhydroxides and aluminum-oxides, is more important in subsoil. Clay content had little influence on SOC at both depths. These findings contribute to an improved understanding of the controls on SOC stocks in tropical and sub-tropical regions., EGUsphere

Author(s): Metzler, H; Zhu, Q; Riley, W; Hoyt, A; Muller, M; Sierra, CA | Abstract: Radiocarbon (14C) is a powerful tracer of the global carbon cycle that is commonly used to assess carbon cycling rates in various Earth system reservoirs and as a benchmark to assess model performance. Therefore, it has been recommended that Earth System Models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 report predicted radiocarbon values for relevant carbon pools. However, a detailed representation of radiocarbon dynamics may be an impractical burden on model developers. Here, we present an alternative approach to compute radiocarbon values from the numerical output of an ESM that does not explicitly represent these dynamics. The approach requires computed 12C stocks and fluxes among all carbon pools for a particular simulation of the model. From this output, a time-dependent linear compartmental system is computed with its respective state-transition matrix. Using transient atmospheric 14C values as inputs, the state-transition matrix is then applied to compute radiocarbon values for each pool, the average value for the entire system, and component fluxes. We demonstrate the approach with ELMv1-ECA, the land component of an ESM model that explicitly represents 12C, and 14C in 7 soil pools and 10 vertical layers. Results from our proposed method are highly accurate (relative error l0.01%) compared with the ELMv1-ECA 12C and 14C predictions, demonstrating the potential to use this approach in CMIP6 and other model simulations that do not explicitly represent 14C.

International audience; Permafrost peatlands are important carbon stocks currently experiencing rapid evolution after permafrost thaw. Following thaw, dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a potentially important pathway for the release of permafrost carbon. This study investigates the origin and composition of DOM across sites at different stages of thaw in a discontinuous permafrost area of North Siberia. We determine the optical properties, molecular composition, stable (δ13C) and radiocarbon (14C) content of DOM. Early stages of thaw are characterized by high DOC concentrations, high aromaticity, contribution of vegetation-derived DOM, and a high contribution of permafrost carbon. In contrast, in later stages, the microbial contribution to DOM increases, and only modern carbon is detected. This work links DOM composition with its radiocarbon content in permafrost peatlands. It shows that DOM originating from previously frozen permafrost peatland is highly aromatic and previously processed. It highlights the variability of post-thaw carbon dynamics in boreal and arctic ecosystems.

Emission of CO2 from tropical peatlands is an important component of the global carbon budget. Over days to months, these fluxes are largely controlled by water table depth. However, the diurnal cycle is less well understood, in part, because most measurements have been collected daily at midday. We used an automated chamber system to make hourly measurements of peat surface CO2 emissions from chambers root-cut to 30 cm. We then used these data to disentangle the relationship between temperature, water table and heterotrophic respiration (Rhet ). We made two central observations. First, we found strong diurnal cycles in CO2 flux and near-surface peat temperature (

Introductory Paragraph In the mostly pristine Congo Basin, agricultural land-use change has intensified in recent years. One potential and understudied consequence of this deforestation and conversion to agriculture is the mobilization and loss of organic matter from soils to rivers as dissolved organic matter. Here, we quantify and characterize dissolved organic matter sampled from 19 catchments of varying deforestation extent near Lake Kivu over a two-week period during the wet season. Dissolved organic carbon from deforested, agriculturally-dominated catchments was older (14C age: ~1.5kyr) and more biolabile than from pristine forest catchments. Ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry revealed that this aged organic matter from deforested catchments was energy-rich and chemodiverse, with higher proportions of nitrogen- and sulfur-containing formulae. Given the molecular composition and biolability, we suggest that organic matter from deforested landscapes is preferentially respired upon disturbance, resulting in elevated in-stream concentrations of carbon dioxide. We estimate that while deforestation reduces the overall flux of dissolved organic carbon by ~56%, it does not significantly change the yield of biolabile dissolved organic carbon. Ultimately, the exposure of deeper soil horizons through deforestation and agricultural expansion releases old, previously stable, and biolabile soil organic carbon into the modern carbon cycle via the aquatic pathway.

Soil carbon has been measured for over a century in applications ranging from understanding biogeochemical processes in natural ecosystems to quantifying the productivity and health of managed systems. Consolidating diverse soil carbon datasets is increasingly important to maximize their value, particularly with growing anthropogenic and climate change pressures. In this progress report, we describe recent advances in soil carbon data led by the International Soil Carbon Network and other networks. We highlight priority areas of research requiring soil carbon data, including (a) quantifying boreal, arctic and wetland carbon stocks, (b) understanding the timescales of soil carbon persistence using radiocarbon and chronosequence studies, (c) synthesizing long-term and experimental data to inform carbon stock vulnerability to global change, (d) quantifying root influences on soil carbon and (e) identifying gaps in model–data integration. We also describe the landscape of soil datasets currently available, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses and synergies. Now more than ever, integrated soil data are needed to inform climate mitigation, land management and agricultural practices. This report will aid new data users in navigating various soil databases and encourage scientists to make their measurements publicly available and to join forces to find soil-related solutions.

In the version of this Analysis originally published, the following affiliation for A. Lohila was missing: ‘Finnish Meteorological Institute, Climate System Research, Helsinki, Finland’. This affiliation has now been added, and subsequent affiliations renumbered accordingly, in the online versions of the Analysis.

Land-use change modulates the balance between methane (CH4) oxidation by soil methanotrophs, and production by methanogens through changes in soil physical, chemical and biological properties. The large-scale expansion of rubber plantations in Southeast Asia has decreased CH4 uptake by soil, but a mechanistic understanding of the associated processes within the soil profile is missing. To assess such land-use change impacts, we quantified the relative controls of CH4 diffusion and oxidation processes on soil profile methane fluxes using two datasets from Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. CH4 concentration, bulk density, soil temperature and moisture were measured at 5, 10, 30 and 70 cm depths during the dry and rainy season to determine the effective CH4 diffusion coefficient, diffusive flux, turnover rate and methanotrophic activity. Isotopic fractionation of carbon during CH4 oxidation was estimated using δ13CH4 profiles from in situ soil probes sampled in the dry season. This fractionation factor was used to model the seasonality of CH4 fluxes under the two land uses. CH4 consumption at 0–5 cm soil depth was significantly greater in natural forest than in rubber plantations, with a mean CH4 flux of −23.8 ± 1.0 and −14.4 ± 1.0 μg C m−2 h−1, respectively. Atmospheric CH4 oxidized in the top 10 cm accounted for 93% and 99% of total consumption in forest and rubber profiles, respectively. CH4 diffusivity at the four sampled depths was significantly lower in rubber plantations than in forest. Higher soil water content predominately explained the weakened CH4 sink in converted rubber plantations. During the transition from dry season to rainy season, methanotrophic activity at 5–10 cm depth decreased by 99.6% and 83.3% in forest and rubber plantations, respectively. The estimated isotope fractionation factor for carbon due to CH4 oxidation was 1.0292 ± 0.0015 (n = 12). A diffusion-oxidation model of the 13CH4 profile explained the oxidative behavior in the dry season, but suggested CH4 production in the subsoil during the rainy season. This production needs to be considered in future studies to explain changes in CH4 processes caused by land use transformations. The weakened CH4 sink function in soils under rubber monoculture exerts a negative effect on the global CH4 budget and climate change, given the large extent of rubber plantations worldwide. More sustainable cultivation approaches, such as rubber agroforestry that also improve soil structure and aeration are needed to mitigate this negative impact.

Emission of CO

The question of why some types of organic matter are more persistent while others decompose quickly in soils has motivated a large amount of research in recent years. Persistence is commonly characterized as turnover or mean residence time of soil organic matter (SOM). However, turnover and residence times are ambiguous measures of persistence, because they could represent the concept of either age or transit time. To disambiguate these concepts and propose a metric to assess SOM persistence, we calculated age and transit time distributions for a wide range of soil organic carbon models. Furthermore, we show how age and transit time distributions can be obtained from a stochastic approach that takes a deterministic model of mass transfers among different pools and creates an equivalent stochastic model at the level of atoms. Using this approach we show the following: (1) Age distributions have relatively old mean values and long tails in relation to transit time distributions, suggesting that carbon stored in soils is on average much older than carbon in the release flux. (2) The difference between mean ages and mean transit times is large, with estimates of soil organic carbon persistence on the order of centuries or millennia when assessed using ages and on the order of decades when using transit or turnover times. (3) The age distribution is an appropriate metric to characterize persistence of SOM. An important implication of our analysis is that random chance is a factor that helps to explain why some organic matter persists for millennia in soil., Key Points Persistence of organic matter in soils can be characterized by age distributions of carbonStochastic processes can help to explain the persistence of soil organic matterCarbon persists from centuries to millennia in soils when assessed with age distributions while for decades when assessed with transit time

Tropical peatlands now emit hundreds of megatons of carbon dioxide per year because of human disruption of the feedbacks that link peat accumulation and groundwater hydrology. However, no quantitative theory has existed for how patterns of carbon storage and release accompanying growth and subsidence of tropical peatlands are affected by climate and disturbance. Using comprehensive data from a pristine peatland in Brunei Darussalam, we show how rainfall and groundwater flow determine a shape parameter (the Laplacian of the peat surface elevation) that specifies, under a given rainfall regime, the ultimate, stable morphology, and hence carbon storage, of a tropical peatland within a network of rivers or canals. We find that peatlands reach their ultimate shape first at the edges of peat domes where they are bounded by rivers, so that the rate of carbon uptake accompanying their growth is proportional to the area of the still-growing dome interior. We use this model to study how tropical peatland carbon storage and fluxes are controlled by changes in climate, sea level, and drainage networks. We find that fluctuations in net precipitation on timescales from hours to years can reduce long-term peat accumulation. Our mathematical and numerical models can be used to predict long-term effects of changes in temporal rainfall patterns and drainage networks on tropical peatland geomorphology and carbon storage.

The first International Peat Congress (IPC) held in the tropics – in Kuching (Malaysia) – brought together over 1000 international peatland scientists and industrial partners from across the world (“International Peat Congress with over 1000 participants!,” 2016). The congress covered all aspects of peatland ecosystems and their management, with a strong focus on the environmental, societal and economic challenges associated with contemporary large-scale agricultural conversion of tropical peat.

Solid and dissolved organic matter (DOM) compositions were investigated in a pristine and a deforested tropical peat forest in Brunei Darussalam. A combination of elemental (%C, %N, C/N), isotopic (δ 15 N, δ 13 C, Δ 14 C), molecular (lignin phenol biomarkers) and optical (Specific UV Absorbance at 280 nm (SUVA 280 ), fluorescence index (FI)) analyses were performed to characterize DOM in porewater and river water. The DOM composition was compared to vegetation and peat to assess DOM origin and transformations in the ecosystem. Significant relationships were observed between optical properties (SUVA 280 , FI) and bulk (Δ 14 C) and molecular (ratio of cinnamyl to vanillyl phenols, C/V) composition of DOM. The radiocarbon content of DOM shows that it is modern at both sites for both surface and deep (to 4.5 m) samples (Δ 14 C = 74.58 ± 8.53‰ at the pristine site and Δ 14 C = 87.84 ± 4.5‰ at the deforested site for the first 2 meters), indicating transport of young DOM to deeper layers. Stable carbon-13 content of vegetation, peat and DOM showed only slight fractionation and ranged from −32.2‰ to −28.3‰. Nitrogen showed a greater shift between ecosystem pools. Nitrogen-15 content was higher in the solid peat (δ 15 N = −0.92 ± 0.49‰ in the pristine site, δ 15 N = −1.22 ± 1.37‰ in the deforested site) than in DOM (δ 15 N = −4.2 ± 2.5‰ in the pristine site, δ 15 N = −4.1 ± 2.3‰ in the deforested site). This difference in δ 15 N is significantly correlated with the C/N values of peat and DOM and attributable to higher microbial degradation in the peat compared to DOM. Porewater DOM contains less lignin (λ8 = 1.10 ± 0.27 mg 100 mg dw −1 in the pristine site and λ8 = 1.38 ± 0.46 mg 100 mg dw −1 in the deforested site) than does the solid peat (λ8 = 5.66 ± 2.14 mg 100 mg dw −1 in the pristine site and λ8 = 10.29 ± 4.69 mg 100 mg dw −1 in the deforested site). All indicators of lignin degradation (P/(V + S), 3,5Bd/V, (Ad/Al)V, (Ad/Al)S) are significantly higher in DOM than in the solid peat. This shows that lignin can be processed rapidly in the porewater of upper layers of tropical peatlands. Logging activity affected the composition of organic matter at the deforested site. Higher lignin content (λ8) was observed in the solid peat, and the composition of DOM differed greatly in the deforested site: Δ 14 C, FI, 3,5Bd/V, (Ad/Al)V are significantly different from the pristine site. Thus it appears that the composition of DOM is more sensitive than the solid phase to the effects of land use change on organic matter dynamic in tropical peatlands.

Fires that emit massive amounts of CO2 and particulate matter now burn with regularity in Southeast Asian tropical peatlands. Natural peatlands in Southeast Asia are waterlogged for most of the year and experience little or no fire, but networks of canals constructed for agriculture have drained vast areas of these peatlands, making the soil vulnerable to fire during periods of low rainfall. While soil moisture is the most direct measure of peat flammability, it has not been incorporated into fire studies due to an absence of regional observations. Here, we create the first remotely sensed soil moisture dataset for tropical peatlands in Sumatra, Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia by applying a new retrieval algorithm to satellite data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission with data spanning the 2015 El Niño burning event. Drier soil up to 30 days prior to fire correlates with larger burned area. The predictive information provided by soil moisture complements that of precipitation. Our remote sensing-derived results mirror those from a laboratory-based peat ignition study, suggesting that the dependence of fire on soil moisture exhibits scale independence within peatlands. Soil moisture measured from SMAP, a dataset spanning 2015-present, is a valuable resource for peat fire studies and warning systems.