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Warming-induced vegetation growth cancels out soil carbon-climate feedback in the northern Asian permafrost region in the 21st century
- Source :
- Environmental Research Letters, Vol 17, Iss 8, p 084009 (2022)
- Publication Year :
- 2022
- Publisher :
- IOP Publishing, 2022.
-
Abstract
- Permafrost soils represent an enormous carbon (C) pool that is highly vulnerable to climate warming. We used the model output ensemble of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 to estimate the C storage in soil, litter, and vegetation in the current extent of northern Asian permafrost during 1900–2100. The contemporary (1995–2014) C storage was estimated to be 368.1 ± 82.5 Pg C for the full column depth of the soil, 13.3 ± 4.6 Pg C in litter, and 22.2 ± 3.2 Pg C in vegetation biomass, while these C storage levels are projected to decline by 3.9 Pg C (1.1%) in soils, increase of 0.03 Pg C (0.2%) in litter, and increase by 21.1 Pg C (95.3%) in vegetation biomass by the end of the 21st century under SSP585. The total C storage was dominated by warming-induced vegetation growth. Partial correlation analysis showed that surface air temperature (TAS), soil liquid water, and soil mineral nitrogen (SMN) dominated the soil and vegetation C pools, while SMN controlled litter C during the historical period. Under future scenarios, TAS and SMN dominated the changes of soil and litter C, while TAS determined the vegetation C increase. The growing soil C loss with warming indicates positive C-climate feedback in soils; this warming-induced acceleration of soil C loss was canceled out by the enhanced vegetation C accumulation, leading to a strong C sink in the 21st century.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17489326
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.4f06ce1cb76347b4b6cd03bceb68d1f0
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7eda