Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions

Jinzhi Ding; Leiyi Chen; Chengjun Ji; Gustaf  Hugelius; Yingnian Li; Li Liu; Shuqi Qin; Beibei Zhang; Guibiao Yang; Fei Li; Kai Fang; Yongliang Chen; Yunfeng Peng; Xia Zhao; Honglin He; Pete Smith; Jingyun Fang; Yuanhe Yang

doi:10.1038/ngeo2945

Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions

Jinzhi Ding, Leiyi Chen, Chengjun Ji, Gustaf Hugelius, Yingnian Li, Li Liu, Shuqi Qin, Beibei Zhang, Guibiao Yang, Fei Li, Kai Fang, Yongliang Chen, Yunfeng Peng, Xia Zhao, Honglin He, Pete Smith, Jingyun Fang, Yuanhe Yang^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

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Abstract

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 C m−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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	420-424
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Geoscience
Volume	10
Issue number	6
Early online date	8 May 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2945
Publication status	Published - Jun 2017

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
We thank the members of Peking University Sampling Teams (2001–2004) and IBCAS Sampling Teams (2013–2014) for assistance in field data collection. We also thank the Forestry Bureau of Qinghai Province and the Forestry Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region for their permission and assistance during the sampling process. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670482 and 31322011), National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change (2014CB954001 and 2015CB954201), Chinese Academy of Sciences-Peking University Pioneer Cooperation Team, and the Thousand Young Talents Program.

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title = "Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions",

abstract = "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 C m−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.",

author = "Jinzhi Ding and Leiyi Chen and Chengjun Ji and Gustaf Hugelius and Yingnian Li and Li Liu and Shuqi Qin and Beibei Zhang and Guibiao Yang and Fei Li and Kai Fang and Yongliang Chen and Yunfeng Peng and Xia Zhao and Honglin He and Pete Smith and Jingyun Fang and Yuanhe Yang",

note = "Acknowledgements We thank the members of Peking University Sampling Teams (2001–2004) and IBCAS Sampling Teams (2013–2014) for assistance in field data collection. We also thank the Forestry Bureau of Qinghai Province and the Forestry Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region for their permission and assistance during the sampling process. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670482 and 31322011), National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change (2014CB954001 and 2015CB954201), Chinese Academy of Sciences-Peking University Pioneer Cooperation Team, and the Thousand Young Talents Program. ",

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T1 - Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions

AU - Ding, Jinzhi

AU - Chen, Leiyi

AU - Ji, Chengjun

AU - Hugelius, Gustaf

AU - Li, Yingnian

AU - Liu, Li

AU - Qin, Shuqi

AU - Zhang, Beibei

AU - Yang, Guibiao

AU - Li, Fei

AU - Fang, Kai

AU - Chen, Yongliang

AU - Peng, Yunfeng

AU - Zhao, Xia

AU - He, Honglin

AU - Smith, Pete

AU - Fang, Jingyun

AU - Yang, Yuanhe

N1 - Acknowledgements We thank the members of Peking University Sampling Teams (2001–2004) and IBCAS Sampling Teams (2013–2014) for assistance in field data collection. We also thank the Forestry Bureau of Qinghai Province and the Forestry Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region for their permission and assistance during the sampling process. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670482 and 31322011), National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change (2014CB954001 and 2015CB954201), Chinese Academy of Sciences-Peking University Pioneer Cooperation Team, and the Thousand Young Talents Program.

PY - 2017/6

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N2 - 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 C m−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.

AB - 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 C m−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.

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DO - 10.1038/ngeo2945

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EP - 424

JO - Nature Geoscience

JF - Nature Geoscience

IS - 6

ER -

Decadal soil carbon accumulation across Tibetan permafrost regions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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