Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling
Increasing accumulation of CO 2 in the atmosphere has led to calls for terrestrial mechanisms for CO 2 abatement and given that soils represent the largest terrestrial body of C on Earth, there is a great deal of interest in soils as a sink for atmospheric C. This emphasis on sequestration in boreal...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:foresj:cps003v1 2023-05-15T17:57:38+02:00 Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling DeLuca, Thomas H. Boisvenue, Celine 2012-02-15 09:32:28.0 text/html http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/cps003v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 en eng Oxford University Press http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/cps003v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 Copyright (C) 2012, Institute of Chartered Foresters Review Article TEXT 2012 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 2016-11-16T17:18:20Z Increasing accumulation of CO 2 in the atmosphere has led to calls for terrestrial mechanisms for CO 2 abatement and given that soils represent the largest terrestrial body of C on Earth, there is a great deal of interest in soils as a sink for atmospheric C. This emphasis on sequestration in boreal forest soils is understandable given the sheer mass of this C reservoir (∼1700 Pg of C) but diverts our attention from the importance of soil C in soil physical, chemical and biotic functions, and importantly, it ignores the possibility that soils may also represent a source of C. In this review, we address these issues through a discussion of the size and character of boreal forest soil C pool, its role in ecosystem function, the potential impacts of climate change on soil C, efforts to model these processes and the role of soil C in boreal resilience to the impacts of climate change. Soil C is fundamental to ecosystem function in terms of improving soil physical properties, increasing soil biotic activity and enhancing insulation all of which improve site productivity. Managing upland soils for C sequesteration will achieve little in terms of offsetting fossil fuel emissions but would likely improve soil quality. Most of the C stored in the boreal biome is found in permafrost and wetland soils and events related to climatic change could shift these soils from C sink to C source. Melting of permafrost soils with predicted warming trends within the circumpolar region could result in the release of 30–60 Pg C by the year 2040. Such predictions, however, are limited by uncertainty in both climatic changes and soil response to these changes. Prediction of shifts in soil C dynamics with climate change relies on our ability to link C transformations to N dynamics and climatic variables. Improvement in ecosystem models will advance our ability to assess the resilience of the boreal biome under future climatic conditions. Text permafrost HighWire Press (Stanford University) Forestry 85 2 161 184 |
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Review Article |
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Review Article DeLuca, Thomas H. Boisvenue, Celine Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
topic_facet |
Review Article |
description |
Increasing accumulation of CO 2 in the atmosphere has led to calls for terrestrial mechanisms for CO 2 abatement and given that soils represent the largest terrestrial body of C on Earth, there is a great deal of interest in soils as a sink for atmospheric C. This emphasis on sequestration in boreal forest soils is understandable given the sheer mass of this C reservoir (∼1700 Pg of C) but diverts our attention from the importance of soil C in soil physical, chemical and biotic functions, and importantly, it ignores the possibility that soils may also represent a source of C. In this review, we address these issues through a discussion of the size and character of boreal forest soil C pool, its role in ecosystem function, the potential impacts of climate change on soil C, efforts to model these processes and the role of soil C in boreal resilience to the impacts of climate change. Soil C is fundamental to ecosystem function in terms of improving soil physical properties, increasing soil biotic activity and enhancing insulation all of which improve site productivity. Managing upland soils for C sequesteration will achieve little in terms of offsetting fossil fuel emissions but would likely improve soil quality. Most of the C stored in the boreal biome is found in permafrost and wetland soils and events related to climatic change could shift these soils from C sink to C source. Melting of permafrost soils with predicted warming trends within the circumpolar region could result in the release of 30–60 Pg C by the year 2040. Such predictions, however, are limited by uncertainty in both climatic changes and soil response to these changes. Prediction of shifts in soil C dynamics with climate change relies on our ability to link C transformations to N dynamics and climatic variables. Improvement in ecosystem models will advance our ability to assess the resilience of the boreal biome under future climatic conditions. |
format |
Text |
author |
DeLuca, Thomas H. Boisvenue, Celine |
author_facet |
DeLuca, Thomas H. Boisvenue, Celine |
author_sort |
DeLuca, Thomas H. |
title |
Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
title_short |
Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
title_full |
Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
title_fullStr |
Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
title_full_unstemmed |
Boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
title_sort |
boreal forest soil carbon: distribution, function and modelling |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/cps003v1 https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_relation |
http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/cps003v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2012, Institute of Chartered Foresters |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cps003 |
container_title |
Forestry |
container_volume |
85 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
161 |
op_container_end_page |
184 |
_version_ |
1766166109481861120 |