Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems
In arctic tundra and boreal forest ecosystems vegetation structural and functional influences on the surface energy balance can strongly influence permafrost soil temperatures. As such, vegetation changes will likely play an important role in permafrost soil carbon dynamics and associated climate fe...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 https://doaj.org/article/1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 2023-09-05T13:16:46+02:00 Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems Michael M Loranty Wil Lieberman-Cribbin Logan T Berner Susan M Natali Scott J Goetz Heather D Alexander Alexander L Kholodov 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 https://doaj.org/article/1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 11, Iss 9, p 095008 (2016) boreal forest greening browning arctic tundra permafrost carbon wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 2023-08-13T00:37:44Z In arctic tundra and boreal forest ecosystems vegetation structural and functional influences on the surface energy balance can strongly influence permafrost soil temperatures. As such, vegetation changes will likely play an important role in permafrost soil carbon dynamics and associated climate feedbacks. Processes that lead to changes in vegetation, such as wildfire or ecosystem responses to rising temperatures, are of critical importance to understanding the impacts of arctic and boreal ecosystems on future climate. Yet these processes vary within and between ecosystems and this variability has not been systematically characterized across the arctic-boreal region. Here we quantify the distribution of vegetation productivity trends, wildfire, and near-surface soil carbon, by vegetation type, across the zones of continuous and discontinuous permafrost. Siberian larch forests contain more than one quarter of permafrost soil carbon in areas of continuous permafrost. We observe pervasive positive trends in vegetation productivity in areas of continuous permafrost, whereas areas underlain by discontinuous permafrost have proportionally less positive productivity trends and an increase in areas exhibiting negative productivity trends. Fire affects a much smaller proportion of the total area and thus a smaller amount of permafrost soil carbon, with the vast majority occurring in deciduous needleleaf forests. Our results indicate that vegetation productivity trends may be linked to permafrost distribution, fire affects a relatively small proportion of permafrost soil carbon, and Siberian larch forests will play a crucial role in the strength of the permafrost carbon climate feedback. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic permafrost Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Browning ENVELOPE(164.050,164.050,-74.617,-74.617) Environmental Research Letters 11 9 095008 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
boreal forest greening browning arctic tundra permafrost carbon wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
boreal forest greening browning arctic tundra permafrost carbon wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Michael M Loranty Wil Lieberman-Cribbin Logan T Berner Susan M Natali Scott J Goetz Heather D Alexander Alexander L Kholodov Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
topic_facet |
boreal forest greening browning arctic tundra permafrost carbon wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
In arctic tundra and boreal forest ecosystems vegetation structural and functional influences on the surface energy balance can strongly influence permafrost soil temperatures. As such, vegetation changes will likely play an important role in permafrost soil carbon dynamics and associated climate feedbacks. Processes that lead to changes in vegetation, such as wildfire or ecosystem responses to rising temperatures, are of critical importance to understanding the impacts of arctic and boreal ecosystems on future climate. Yet these processes vary within and between ecosystems and this variability has not been systematically characterized across the arctic-boreal region. Here we quantify the distribution of vegetation productivity trends, wildfire, and near-surface soil carbon, by vegetation type, across the zones of continuous and discontinuous permafrost. Siberian larch forests contain more than one quarter of permafrost soil carbon in areas of continuous permafrost. We observe pervasive positive trends in vegetation productivity in areas of continuous permafrost, whereas areas underlain by discontinuous permafrost have proportionally less positive productivity trends and an increase in areas exhibiting negative productivity trends. Fire affects a much smaller proportion of the total area and thus a smaller amount of permafrost soil carbon, with the vast majority occurring in deciduous needleleaf forests. Our results indicate that vegetation productivity trends may be linked to permafrost distribution, fire affects a relatively small proportion of permafrost soil carbon, and Siberian larch forests will play a crucial role in the strength of the permafrost carbon climate feedback. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Michael M Loranty Wil Lieberman-Cribbin Logan T Berner Susan M Natali Scott J Goetz Heather D Alexander Alexander L Kholodov |
author_facet |
Michael M Loranty Wil Lieberman-Cribbin Logan T Berner Susan M Natali Scott J Goetz Heather D Alexander Alexander L Kholodov |
author_sort |
Michael M Loranty |
title |
Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
title_short |
Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
title_full |
Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
title_sort |
spatial variation in vegetation productivity trends, fire disturbance, and soil carbon across arctic-boreal permafrost ecosystems |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 https://doaj.org/article/1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(164.050,164.050,-74.617,-74.617) |
geographic |
Arctic Browning |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Browning |
genre |
Arctic permafrost Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 11, Iss 9, p 095008 (2016) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/1ff7b00c220d43cfba43cfec4a7f4795 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/095008 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
095008 |
_version_ |
1776198236721119232 |