Soil dissolved organic carbon in terrestrial ecosystems: Global budget, spatial distribution and controls

Aims Soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a primary form of labile carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore plays a vital role in soil carbon cycling. This study aims to quantify the budgets of soil DOC at biome and global levels and to examine the variations in soil DOC and their environme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Global Ecology and Biogeography
Main Authors: Guo, Ziyu, Wang, Yihui, Wan, Zhongmei, Zuo, Yunjiang, He, Liyuan, Li, Dan, Yuan, Fenghui, Wang, Nannan, Liu, Jianzhao, Song, Yanyu, Song, Changchun, Xu, Xiaofeng
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: WILEY 2020
Subjects:
biomes
dissolved organic carbon
terrestrial ecosystems
vertical distribution
Ecology
Geography
Physical
MICROBIAL COMMUNITY COMPOSITION
DIFFERENT LAND USES
ACID FOREST SOILS
NITROGEN DON
MATTER DOM
ALTITUDINAL GRADIENT
SUBTROPICAL FOREST
METHANE EMISSIONS
CONIFEROUS FOREST
INNER-MONGOLIA
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Physical Geography
Tundra
Online Access:http://ir.ibcas.ac.cn/handle/2S10CLM1/21566
https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13186
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Summary:Aims Soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a primary form of labile carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore plays a vital role in soil carbon cycling. This study aims to quantify the budgets of soil DOC at biome and global levels and to examine the variations in soil DOC and their environmental controls. Location Global. Time period 1981-2019. Methods We compiled a global dataset and analysed the concentration and distribution of DOC across 10 biomes. Results Large variations in DOC are found among biomes across space and the soil DOC concentration declines exponentially along soil depths. Tundra has the highest soil DOC concentration in 0-30 cm soils [453.75 (95% confidence interval: 324.95-633.5) mg/kg], whereas tropical and temperate forests have relatively lower DOC concentrations, ranging from 30.20 (24.78-36.80) to 54.54 (49.77-59.77) mg/kg. DOC generally accounts for < 1% of total organic carbon in soils, and DOC in 0-30 cm contributes more than half of the total DOC in the 0-100 cm soil profile. Furthermore, variations in DOC are primarily controlled by soil texture, moisture, and total organic carbon. Main conclusions A global synthesis is combined with an empirical model to extrapolate the DOC concentration along soil profiles across the globe, and global budgets of DOC are estimated as 7.20 Pg C in the top 0-30 cm and 12.97 Pg C in the 0-100 cm soil profile, respectively, with a considerable variation among biomes. The strong soil texture control but weak total organic carbon (TOC) control on DOC variations suggest that the investigation of physical protection of soil organic carbon might need to expand to consider the labile C in soils. The global maps of DOC concentration serve as a benchmark for validating land surface models in estimating carbon storage in soils.

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