<scp>SWAMP</scp>: A new experiment for simulating permafrost warming and active layer deepening on the Tibetan Plateau

Bai, Yuxuan; Peng, Yunfeng; Zhou, Wei; Xie, Yunchang; Li, Qinlu; Yang, Guibiao; Chen, Leiyi; Zhu, Biao; Yang, Yuanhe

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.14124

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Previous studies suggested that soil carbon emissions in grasslands had the highest uncertainty among all biomes 35 , 36 . In addition, Tibetan alpine grassland ecosystems, with huge carbon stocks 8 (7.4 Pg C in the top 1 m), may lose a large share of soil carbon with warming because warming increases thaw depth and duration 37 , and the effect size may be contingent on the size of initial soil C stock (based on surface or shallow soil warming experiments 38 ). But, thus far shallow warming experiments in alpine grassland ecosystems have not altered soil organic carbon stocks 20 , 39 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whole-soil warming leads to substantial soil carbon emission in an alpine grassland

Chen,

Qin,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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The sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition in seasonally frozen soils, such as alpine ecosystems, to climate warming is a major uncertainty in global carbon cycling. Here we measure soil CO2 emission during four years (2018–2021) from the whole-soil warming experiment (4 °C for the top 1 m) in an alpine grassland ecosystem. We find that whole-soil warming stimulates total and SOC-derived CO2 efflux by 26% and 37%, respectively, but has a minor effect on root-derived CO2 efflux. Moreover, experimental warming only promotes total soil CO2 efflux by 7-8% on average in the meta-analysis across all grasslands or alpine grasslands globally (none of these experiments were whole-soil warming). We show that whole-soil warming has a much stronger effect on soil carbon emission in the alpine grassland ecosystem than what was reported in previous warming experiments, most of which only heat surface soils.

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