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Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands

Peatlands at high latitudes have accumulated >400 Pg carbon (C) because saturated soil and cold temperatures suppress C decomposition. This substantial amount of C in Arctic and Boreal peatlands is potentially subject to increased decomposition if the water table (WT) decreases due to climate cha...

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Autores principales: Kwon, Min Jung, Ballantyne, Ashley, Ciais, Philippe, Qiu, Chunjing, Salmon, Elodie, Raoult, Nina, Guenet, Bertrand, Göckede, Mathias, Euskirchen, Eugénie S., Nykänen, Hannu, Schuur, Edward A. G., Turetsky, Merritt R., Dieleman, Catherine M., Kane, Evan S., Zona, Donatella
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9805217/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36039832
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16394
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author Kwon, Min Jung
Ballantyne, Ashley
Ciais, Philippe
Qiu, Chunjing
Salmon, Elodie
Raoult, Nina
Guenet, Bertrand
Göckede, Mathias
Euskirchen, Eugénie S.
Nykänen, Hannu
Schuur, Edward A. G.
Turetsky, Merritt R.
Dieleman, Catherine M.
Kane, Evan S.
Zona, Donatella
author_facet Kwon, Min Jung
Ballantyne, Ashley
Ciais, Philippe
Qiu, Chunjing
Salmon, Elodie
Raoult, Nina
Guenet, Bertrand
Göckede, Mathias
Euskirchen, Eugénie S.
Nykänen, Hannu
Schuur, Edward A. G.
Turetsky, Merritt R.
Dieleman, Catherine M.
Kane, Evan S.
Zona, Donatella
author_sort Kwon, Min Jung
collection PubMed
description Peatlands at high latitudes have accumulated >400 Pg carbon (C) because saturated soil and cold temperatures suppress C decomposition. This substantial amount of C in Arctic and Boreal peatlands is potentially subject to increased decomposition if the water table (WT) decreases due to climate change, including permafrost thaw‐related drying. Here, we optimize a version of the Organizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems model (ORCHIDEE‐PCH4) using site‐specific observations to investigate changes in CO(2) and CH(4) fluxes as well as C stock responses to an experimentally manipulated decrease of WT at six northern peatlands. The unmanipulated control peatlands, with the WT <20 cm on average (seasonal max up to 45 cm) below the surface, currently act as C sinks in most years (58 ± 34 g C m(−2) year(−1); including 6 ± 7 g C–CH(4) m(−2) year(−1) emission). We found, however, that lowering the WT by 10 cm reduced the CO(2) sink by 13 ± 15 g C m(−2) year(−1) and decreased CH(4) emission by 4 ± 4 g CH(4) m(−2) year(−1), thus accumulating less C over 100 years (0.2 ± 0.2 kg C m(−2)). Yet, the reduced emission of CH(4), which has a larger greenhouse warming potential, resulted in a net decrease in greenhouse gas balance by 310 ± 360 g CO(2‐eq) m(−2) year(−1). Peatlands with the initial WT close to the soil surface were more vulnerable to C loss: Non‐permafrost peatlands lost >2 kg C m(−2) over 100 years when WT is lowered by 50 cm, while permafrost peatlands temporally switched from C sinks to sources. These results highlight that reductions in C storage capacity in response to drying of northern peatlands are offset in part by reduced CH(4) emissions, thus slightly reducing the positive carbon climate feedbacks of peatlands under a warmer and drier future climate scenario.
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spelling pubmed-98052172023-01-06 Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands Kwon, Min Jung Ballantyne, Ashley Ciais, Philippe Qiu, Chunjing Salmon, Elodie Raoult, Nina Guenet, Bertrand Göckede, Mathias Euskirchen, Eugénie S. Nykänen, Hannu Schuur, Edward A. G. Turetsky, Merritt R. Dieleman, Catherine M. Kane, Evan S. Zona, Donatella Glob Chang Biol Research Articles Peatlands at high latitudes have accumulated >400 Pg carbon (C) because saturated soil and cold temperatures suppress C decomposition. This substantial amount of C in Arctic and Boreal peatlands is potentially subject to increased decomposition if the water table (WT) decreases due to climate change, including permafrost thaw‐related drying. Here, we optimize a version of the Organizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems model (ORCHIDEE‐PCH4) using site‐specific observations to investigate changes in CO(2) and CH(4) fluxes as well as C stock responses to an experimentally manipulated decrease of WT at six northern peatlands. The unmanipulated control peatlands, with the WT <20 cm on average (seasonal max up to 45 cm) below the surface, currently act as C sinks in most years (58 ± 34 g C m(−2) year(−1); including 6 ± 7 g C–CH(4) m(−2) year(−1) emission). We found, however, that lowering the WT by 10 cm reduced the CO(2) sink by 13 ± 15 g C m(−2) year(−1) and decreased CH(4) emission by 4 ± 4 g CH(4) m(−2) year(−1), thus accumulating less C over 100 years (0.2 ± 0.2 kg C m(−2)). Yet, the reduced emission of CH(4), which has a larger greenhouse warming potential, resulted in a net decrease in greenhouse gas balance by 310 ± 360 g CO(2‐eq) m(−2) year(−1). Peatlands with the initial WT close to the soil surface were more vulnerable to C loss: Non‐permafrost peatlands lost >2 kg C m(−2) over 100 years when WT is lowered by 50 cm, while permafrost peatlands temporally switched from C sinks to sources. These results highlight that reductions in C storage capacity in response to drying of northern peatlands are offset in part by reduced CH(4) emissions, thus slightly reducing the positive carbon climate feedbacks of peatlands under a warmer and drier future climate scenario. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-08-30 2022-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9805217/ /pubmed/36039832 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16394 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Kwon, Min Jung
Ballantyne, Ashley
Ciais, Philippe
Qiu, Chunjing
Salmon, Elodie
Raoult, Nina
Guenet, Bertrand
Göckede, Mathias
Euskirchen, Eugénie S.
Nykänen, Hannu
Schuur, Edward A. G.
Turetsky, Merritt R.
Dieleman, Catherine M.
Kane, Evan S.
Zona, Donatella
Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title_full Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title_fullStr Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title_full_unstemmed Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title_short Lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
title_sort lowering water table reduces carbon sink strength and carbon stocks in northern peatlands
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9805217/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36039832
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16394
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