Climate change effects on the carbon balance in an arctic tundra plant-soil system:A thesis of snow and fire

• Main Author: Hermesdorf, Lena
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Climate change; Tundra
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/climate-change-effects-on-the-carbon-balance-in-an-arctic-tundra-plantsoil-system(ca279692-6418-462e-8061-638d5d79aec3).html

The Arctic is experiencing rising temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and an increase in climate change driven events, such as wildfire. An increase in both summer temperatures and snow may positively and negatively affect the carbon (C) pools and carbon dioxide (CO2) dynamics in the plant-soil system and are therefore expected to vary across the arctic tundra ecosystems. Higher temperatures during the growing season could promote plant growth and thus, CO2 uptake and C gain, and accelerate respiration processes, leading to increased C losses from the ecosystem into the atmosphere. Additional snow is expected to increase winter soil temperatures due to the insulating effect of the deepened snow cover enhancing soil processes such as soil C decomposition and soil nitrogen (N) cycling rates, which could either increase soil N nutrient availability in the following growing season or deplete soils for labile C. The long-term effects as well as the effects of the combination of summer warming and snow addition on C dynamics in a well-drained tundra ecosystem remain largely unknown. The frequency of wildfires in the Arctic is projected to increase due to warmer and drier summers. Fires are disruptive forces causing an immediate release of large amounts of CO2, with potentially large effects on the ecosystem processes and, consequently, the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance. This thesis addresses the effects of increased summer warming, deepened snow, and fire individually and (in part) in combination on the C dynamics in arctic tundra ecosystems. The work is based on field experiments in a well-drained tundra ecosystem on Disko Island, West Greenland. The short- and long-term effects on in situ CO2 fluxes and long-term effects on C pools following summer warming and snow addition were assessed using a multi-factorial snow fence experiment. In situ GHG flux measurements were used to investigate the immediate and short-term effects of experimental fire on the GHG balance in a tundra ecosystem in ambient and ...