Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change
The permafrost region has accumulated organic carbon in cold and waterlogged soils over thousands of years and now contains three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Global warming is degrading permafrost with the potential to accelerate climate change as increased microbial decomposition releas...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 2024-06-02T08:12:57+00:00 Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change Schuur, Edward A. G. Hicks Pries, Caitlin Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris Department of Energy 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 381, issue 2261 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 journal-article 2023 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 2024-05-07T14:16:20Z The permafrost region has accumulated organic carbon in cold and waterlogged soils over thousands of years and now contains three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Global warming is degrading permafrost with the potential to accelerate climate change as increased microbial decomposition releases soil carbon as greenhouse gases. A 19-year time series of soil and ecosystem respiration radiocarbon from Alaska provides long-term insight into changing permafrost soil carbon dynamics in a warmer world. Nine per cent of ecosystem respiration and 23% of soil respiration observations had radiocarbon values more than 50‰ lower than the atmospheric value. Furthermore, the overall trend of ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon values through time decreased more than atmospheric radiocarbon values did, indicating that old carbon degradation was enhanced. Boosted regression tree analyses showed that temperature and moisture environmental variables had the largest relative influence on lower radiocarbon values. This suggested that old carbon degradation was controlled by warming/permafrost thaw and soil drying together, as waterlogged soil conditions could protect soil carbon from microbial decomposition even when thawed. Overall, changing conditions increasingly favoured the release of old carbon, which is a definitive fingerprint of an accelerating feedback to climate change as a consequence of warming and permafrost destabilization. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Radiocarbon in the Anthropocene’. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Alaska The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 381 2261 |
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English |
description |
The permafrost region has accumulated organic carbon in cold and waterlogged soils over thousands of years and now contains three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Global warming is degrading permafrost with the potential to accelerate climate change as increased microbial decomposition releases soil carbon as greenhouse gases. A 19-year time series of soil and ecosystem respiration radiocarbon from Alaska provides long-term insight into changing permafrost soil carbon dynamics in a warmer world. Nine per cent of ecosystem respiration and 23% of soil respiration observations had radiocarbon values more than 50‰ lower than the atmospheric value. Furthermore, the overall trend of ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon values through time decreased more than atmospheric radiocarbon values did, indicating that old carbon degradation was enhanced. Boosted regression tree analyses showed that temperature and moisture environmental variables had the largest relative influence on lower radiocarbon values. This suggested that old carbon degradation was controlled by warming/permafrost thaw and soil drying together, as waterlogged soil conditions could protect soil carbon from microbial decomposition even when thawed. Overall, changing conditions increasingly favoured the release of old carbon, which is a definitive fingerprint of an accelerating feedback to climate change as a consequence of warming and permafrost destabilization. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Radiocarbon in the Anthropocene’. |
author2 |
Department of Energy |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schuur, Edward A. G. Hicks Pries, Caitlin Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris |
spellingShingle |
Schuur, Edward A. G. Hicks Pries, Caitlin Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
author_facet |
Schuur, Edward A. G. Hicks Pries, Caitlin Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris |
author_sort |
Schuur, Edward A. G. |
title |
Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
title_short |
Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
title_full |
Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
title_fullStr |
Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
title_sort |
ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 |
genre |
permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
permafrost Alaska |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 381, issue 2261 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0201 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
container_volume |
381 |
container_issue |
2261 |
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1800759561413459968 |