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On the formation of high-latitude soil carbon stocks: Effects of cryoturbation and insulation by organic matter in a land surface model
- Source :
- Geophysical Research Letters, Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union, 2009, 36, pp.L21501. ⟨10.1029/2009GL040150⟩, Geophysical Research Letters, 2009, 36, pp.L21501. ⟨10.1029/2009GL040150⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2009.
-
Abstract
- International audience; We modify the soil component of the ORCHIDEE terrestrial carbon cycle model to include vertically-discretized soil carbon. With this model, we investigate the feedback of considering thermal insulation by soil carbon, which modifies the soil thermal regime by lowering the thermal conductivity and increasing the heat capacity of a carbon-rich soil, on the total carbon stocks the model builds up. In addition, we demonstrate the effects of diffusive vertical mixing of soil organic matter by cryoturbation on the total carbon stocks that the model builds up in mineral soils in equilibrium with a steady climate. We show that including these two effects together leads to up to 30% higher soil carbon stocks in the top meter of permafrost soils, as well as large stocks of carbon below 1m in the upper permafrost soil layers. The vertical profile of partitioning of carbon between different lability pools is also affected, as the slower pools are more deeply mixed; also the time to reach equilibrium lengthens considerably. These effects are largest in the coldest regions such as Eastern Siberia. The inclusion of cryoturbative mixing and insulation by soil carbon leads to better agreement with estimates of high-latitude soil carbon stocks, where substantial amounts of carbon are found in permafrost regions, to depths of three meters; however we do not include peat, Yedoma, or alluvial deposition processes here, so the total carbon stocks are still lower than observed.
- Subjects :
- Hydrology
global carbon cycle
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Soil organic matter
0207 environmental engineering
Yedoma
Soil classification
Soil science
02 engineering and technology
Soil carbon
15. Life on land
Permafrost
01 natural sciences
Carbon cycle
climate change
Geophysics
13. Climate action
Soil water
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Environmental science
Permafrost carbon cycle
[SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology
020701 environmental engineering
permafrost
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00948276 and 19448007
- Volume :
- 36
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....cc4f0e9e211a62c358847bcf16b8459c