Root-associated fungi and carbon storage in Arctic ecosystems

• Published in: New Phytologist
• Main Authors: Robinson, Clare H, Wookey, Philip A, Parker, Thomas C
• Other Authors: Natural Environment Research Council, University of Manchester, Biological and Environmental Sciences, orcid:0000-0002-0512-4630, orcid:0000-0001-5957-6424, orcid:0000-0002-3648-5316
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020
• Subjects: active layer; Arctic ecosystems; dark septate endophytes; ectomycorrhizal fungi; ericoid mycorrhizal fungi; permafrost; tundra; Arctic; Schaefer; Tundra
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/30852; https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16443; http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/30852/1/nph.16443.pdf

Permafrost soils contain c. 1980 Pg carbon (C; Schuur et al., 2015), more than twice the size of the atmospheric C pool. Thawing permafrost, subsequent changes in hydrological conditions and resulting microbial decomposition of previously frozen organic C is one of the most significant potential feedbacks from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere in a changing climate (Schuur et al., 2008; Hugelius et al., 2012; Hope & Schaefer, 2016): such changes are now occurring at a dramatic pace over large regions of the Northern Hemisphere.