Temperature effects on carbon storage are controlled by soil stabilisation capacities

Hartley, Iain P.; Hill, Timothy; Chadburn, Sarah; Hugelius, Gustaf

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27101-1

Cited by 96 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…At the global scale, the SOC stocks are strongly influenced by climate, soil properties, and nitrogen atmospheric deposition (Supplementary Fig. S1 ), as already reported in the literature 46 – 48 . Because of the strong imprint of the environment on SOC when comparing different sites, and because our objective was to quantify the influence of plant traits of different tree species growing in the same conditions, we normalised SOC values relative to the mean C pool of a site before further analysis.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 71%

Tree functional traits, forest biomass, and tree species diversity interact with site properties to drive forest soil carbon

2022

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Forests constitute important ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. However, how trees and environmental conditions interact to determine the amount of organic carbon stored in forest soils is a hotly debated subject. In particular, how tree species influence soil organic carbon (SOC) remains unclear. Based on a global compilation of data, we show that functional traits of trees and forest standing biomass explain half of the local variability in forest SOC. The effects of functional traits on SOC depended on the climatic and soil conditions with the strongest effect observed under boreal climate and on acidic, poor, coarse-textured soils. Mixing tree species in forests also favours the storage of SOC, provided that a biomass over-yielding occurs in mixed forests. We propose that the forest carbon sink can be optimised by (i) increasing standing biomass, (ii) increasing forest species richness, and (iii) choosing forest composition based on tree functional traits according to the local conditions.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 71%

Tree functional traits, forest biomass, and tree species diversity interact with site properties to drive forest soil carbon

2022

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“…5 ). Soil properties are recognised to be important for SOC stabilisation and storage 8 , 41 , 42 . It is reasonable to expect that soil properties may also shape the response of SOC to warming.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global soil profiles indicate depth-dependent soil carbon losses under a warmer climate

et al. 2022

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Soil organic carbon (SOC) changes under future climate warming are difficult to quantify in situ. Here we apply an innovative approach combining space-for-time substitution with meta-analysis to SOC measurements in 113,013 soil profiles across the globe to estimate the effect of future climate warming on steady-state SOC stocks. We find that SOC stock will reduce by 6.0 ± 1.6% (mean±95% confidence interval), 4.8 ± 2.3% and 1.3 ± 4.0% at 0–0.3, 0.3–1 and 1–2 m soil depths, respectively, under 1 °C air warming, with additional 4.2%, 2.2% and 1.4% losses per every additional 1 °C warming, respectively. The largest proportional SOC losses occur in boreal forests. Existing SOC level is the predominant determinant of the spatial variability of SOC changes with higher percentage losses in SOC-rich soils. Our work demonstrates that warming induces more proportional SOC losses in topsoil than in subsoil, particularly from high-latitudinal SOC-rich systems.

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“…3c ). We note that even WoSIS soil profiles showed a greater representation in temperate ecosystems compared to tropical and boreal ecosystems 94 (Supplementary Fig. 3b ), further highlighting the need for additional measurements in these regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Global stocks and capacity of mineral-associated soil organic carbon

et al. 2022

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Soil is the largest terrestrial reservoir of organic carbon and is central for climate change mitigation and carbon-climate feedbacks. Chemical and physical associations of soil carbon with minerals play a critical role in carbon storage, but the amount and global capacity for storage in this form remain unquantified. Here, we produce spatially-resolved global estimates of mineral-associated organic carbon stocks and carbon-storage capacity by analyzing 1144 globally-distributed soil profiles. We show that current stocks total 899 Pg C to a depth of 1 m in non-permafrost mineral soils. Although this constitutes 66% and 70% of soil carbon in surface and deeper layers, respectively, it is only 42% and 21% of the mineralogical capacity. Regions under agricultural management and deeper soil layers show the largest undersaturation of mineral-associated carbon. Critically, the degree of undersaturation indicates sequestration efficiency over years to decades. We show that, across 103 carbon-accrual measurements spanning management interventions globally, soils furthest from their mineralogical capacity are more effective at accruing carbon; sequestration rates average 3-times higher in soils at one tenth of their capacity compared to soils at one half of their capacity. Our findings provide insights into the world’s soils, their capacity to store carbon, and priority regions and actions for soil carbon management.

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Temperature effects on carbon storage are controlled by soil stabilisation capacities

Cited by 96 publications

References 48 publications

Tree functional traits, forest biomass, and tree species diversity interact with site properties to drive forest soil carbon

Tree functional traits, forest biomass, and tree species diversity interact with site properties to drive forest soil carbon

Global soil profiles indicate depth-dependent soil carbon losses under a warmer climate

Global stocks and capacity of mineral-associated soil organic carbon

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