Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming

• Published in: Nature Geoscience
• Main Authors: Keuper, Frida, Wild, Birgit, Kummu, Matti, Beer, Christian, Blume-Werry, Gesche, Fontaine, Sébastien, Gavazov, Konstantin, Gentsch, Norman, Guggenberger, Georg, Hugelius, Gustaf, Jalava, Mika, Koven, Charles, Krab, Eveline J., Kuhry, Peter, Monteux, Sylvain, Richter, Andreas, Shahzad, Tanvir, Weedon, James T., Dorrepaal, Ellen
• Other Authors: Department of Built Environment, Water and Environmental Eng., Umeå University, Stockholm University, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, science, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Vienna, Government College University Faisalabad, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Aalto-yliopisto, Aalto University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Global warming; permafrost
• Online Access: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/45714; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0607-0

| openaire: EC/H2020/819202/EU//SOS.aquaterra As global temperatures continue to rise, a key uncertainty of climate projections is the microbial decomposition of vast organic carbon stocks in thawing permafrost soils. Decomposition rates can accelerate up to fourfold in the presence of plant roots, and this mechanism—termed the rhizosphere priming effect—may be especially relevant to thawing permafrost soils as rising temperatures also stimulate plant productivity in the Arctic. However, priming is currently not explicitly included in any model projections of future carbon losses from the permafrost area. Here, we combine high-resolution spatial and depth-resolved datasets of key plant and permafrost properties with empirical relationships of priming effects from living plants on microbial respiration. We show that rhizosphere priming amplifies overall soil respiration in permafrost-affected ecosystems by ~12%, which translates to a priming-induced absolute loss of ~40 Pg soil carbon from the northern permafrost area by 2100. Our findings highlight the need to include fine-scale ecological interactions in order to accurately predict large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest even tighter restrictions on the estimated 200 Pg anthropogenic carbon emission budget to keep global warming below 1.5 °C. Peer reviewed