The age of CO2 released from soils in contrasting ecosystems during the arctic winter

In arctic ecosystems, winter soil respiration can contribute substantially to annual CO2 release, yet the source of this C is not clear. We analysed the 14C content of C released from plant-free plots in mountain birch forest and tundra-heath. Winter-respired CO2 was found to be a similar age (tundr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Main Authors: Hartley, Iain P, Garnett, Mark H, Sommerkorn, Martin, Hopkins, David W, Wookey, Philip A
Other Authors: Natural Environment Research Council, Biological and Environmental Sciences, NERC Radiocarbon Facility (Environment), The James Hutton Institute, Heriot-Watt University, orcid:0000-0001-5957-6424
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Science 2013
Subjects:
14CO2
passive sampling
mountain birch
radiocarbon
tree-line
tundra-heath
winter respiration
Arctic
Tundra
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27826
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.03.011
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/27826/1/1-s2.0-S0038071713000953-main.pdf
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Summary:In arctic ecosystems, winter soil respiration can contribute substantially to annual CO2 release, yet the source of this C is not clear. We analysed the 14C content of C released from plant-free plots in mountain birch forest and tundra-heath. Winter-respired CO2 was found to be a similar age (tundra) or older (forest) than C released during the previous autumn. Overall, our study demonstrates that the decomposition of older C can continue during the winter, in these two contrasting arctic ecosystems.

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