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...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt61g220x5 2023-12-17T10:25:41+01:00 Ecosystem and soil respiration radiocarbon detects old carbon release as a fingerprint of warming and permafrost destabilization with climate change Schuur, Edward AG Pries, Caitlin Hicks Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris 20220201 2023-11-27 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61g220x5 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt61g220x5 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61g220x5 public Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol 381, iss 2261 Agricultural Veterinary and Food Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology Environmental Sciences Forestry Sciences Climate Action arctic tundra climate change ecosystem respiration isotopes permafrost soil carbon radiocarbon Permafrost Soil Ecosystem Carbon Arctic Regions General Science & Technology article 2023 ftcdlib 2023-11-20T19:04:57Z 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 Arctic Climate change Global warming permafrost Tundra Alaska University of California: eScholarship Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Agricultural Veterinary and Food Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology Environmental Sciences Forestry Sciences Climate Action arctic tundra climate change ecosystem respiration isotopes permafrost soil carbon radiocarbon Permafrost Soil Ecosystem Carbon Arctic Regions General Science & Technology |
spellingShingle |
Agricultural Veterinary and Food Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology Environmental Sciences Forestry Sciences Climate Action arctic tundra climate change ecosystem respiration isotopes permafrost soil carbon radiocarbon Permafrost Soil Ecosystem Carbon Arctic Regions General Science & Technology Schuur, Edward AG Pries, Caitlin Hicks 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 |
topic_facet |
Agricultural Veterinary and Food Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology Environmental Sciences Forestry Sciences Climate Action arctic tundra climate change ecosystem respiration isotopes permafrost soil carbon radiocarbon Permafrost Soil Ecosystem Carbon Arctic Regions General Science & Technology |
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'. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schuur, Edward AG Pries, Caitlin Hicks Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris |
author_facet |
Schuur, Edward AG Pries, Caitlin Hicks Mauritz, Marguerite Pegoraro, Elaine Rodenhizer, Heidi See, Craig Ebert, Chris |
author_sort |
Schuur, Edward AG |
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 |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61g220x5 |
op_coverage |
20220201 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming permafrost Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming permafrost Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol 381, iss 2261 |
op_relation |
qt61g220x5 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/61g220x5 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1785577326250033152 |