Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions

• Published in: Nature Geoscience
• Main Authors: Ding, Jinzhi, Chen, Leiyi, Ji, Chengjun, Hugelius, Gustaf, Li, Yingnian, Liu, Li, Qin, Shuqi, Zhang, Beibei, Yang, Guibiao, Li, Fei, Fang, Kai, Chen, Yongliang, Peng, Yunfeng, Zhao, Xia, He, Honglin, Smith, Pete, Fang, Jingyun, Yang, Yuanhe
• Other Authors: Yang, YH (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, State Key Lab Vegetat & Environm Change, Beijing 100093, Peoples R China.; Yang, YH (reprint author), Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, State Key Lab Vegetat & Environm Change, Beijing 100093, Peoples R China., Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Dept Ecol, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Key Lab Earth Surface Proc, Minist Educ, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Stockholm Univ, Dept Phys Geog, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden., Stanford Univ, Dept Earth Syst Sci, Stanford, CA 94305 USA., Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Plateau Biol, Key Lab Adaptat & Evolut Plateau Biota, Xining 810008, Qinghai, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geog Sci & Nat Resources Res, Key Lab Ecosyst Network Observat & Modeling, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China., Univ Aberdeen, Inst Biol & Environm Sci, Sch Biol Sci, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, Scotland., Yang, YH (reprint author), Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China.
• Format: Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: NATURE GEOSCIENCE 2017
• Subjects: ORGANIC-CARBON; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS; ALPINE GRASSLANDS; CLIMATE-CHANGE; CO2 PRODUCTION; PLATEAU; DYNAMICS; MODELS; MINERALIZATION; UNCERTAINTY; permafrost
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/472980; https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO2945

Permafrost soils store large amounts of carbon. Warming can result in carbon release from thawing permafrost, but it can also lead to enhanced primary production, which can increase soil carbon stocks. The balance of these fluxes determines the nature of the permafrost feedback to warming. Here we assessed decadal changes in soil organic carbon stocks in the active layer-the uppermost 30 cm-of permafrost soils across Tibetan alpine regions, based on repeated soil carbon measurements in the early 2000s and 2010s at the same sites. We observed an overall accumulation of soil organic carbon irrespective of vegetation type, with a mean rate of 28.0 g Cm-2 yr(-1) across Tibetan permafrost regions. This soil organic carbon accrual occurred only in the subsurface soil, between depths of 10 and 30 cm, mainly induced by an increase of soil organic carbon concentrations. We conclude that the upper active layer of Tibetan alpine permafrost currently represents a substantial regional soil carbon sink in a warming climate, implying that carbon losses of deeper and older permafrost carbon might be offset by increases in upper-active-layer soil organic carbon stocks, which probably results from enhanced vegetation growth. National Natural Science Foundation of China [31670482, 31322011]; National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change [2014CB954001, 2015CB954201]; Chinese Academy of Sciences-Peking University; Thousand Young Talents Program SCI(E) ARTICLE 6 420-+ 10