Spatial heterogeneity and environmental predictors of permafrost region soil organic carbon stocks

Umakant Mishra, Gustaf Hugelius, Eitan Shelef, Yuanhe Yang, Jens Strauss, Alexey Lupachev, Jennifer W. Harden, Julie D. Jastrow, Chien Lu Ping, William J. Riley, Edward A.G. Schuur, Roser Matamala, Matthias Siewert, Lucas E. Nave, Charles D. Koven, Matthias Fuchs, Juri Palmtag, Peter Kuhry, Claire C. Treat, Sebastian ZubrzyckiForrest M. Hoffman, Bo Elberling, Philip Camill, Alexandra Veremeeva, Andrew Orr

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

180 Scopus citations

Abstract

Large stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC) have accumulated in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region, but their current amounts and future fate remain uncertain. By analyzing dataset combining >2700 soil profiles with environmental variables in a geospatial framework, we generated spatially explicit estimates of permafrost-region SOC stocks, quantified spatial heterogeneity, and identified key environmental predictors. We estimated that Pg C are stored in the top 3 m of permafrost region soils. The greatest uncertainties occurred in circumpolar toe-slope positions and in flat areas of the Tibetan region. We found that soil wetness index and elevation are the dominant topographic controllers and surface air temperature (circumpolar region) and precipitation (Tibetan region) are significant climatic controllers of SOC stocks. Our results provide first high-resolution geospatial assessment of permafrost region SOC stocks and their relationships with environmental factors, which are crucial for modeling the response of permafrost affected soils to changing climate.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereaaz5236
JournalScience Advances
Volume7
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 24 2021

Funding

This study was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy under Argonne National Laboratory contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Contributions of A.L. and A.V. were supported under governmental assignment no. 0191-2019-0044 and Russian Foundation for Basic Researches contract no. 19-05-00071a. Contributions of W.J.R. were supported under Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 as part of the Regional and Global Model Analysis (RGMA) program and the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment Arctic project. This study benefited from input from members of the Permafrost Carbon Network (www.permafrostcarbon.org). Supporting funding to the Permafrost Carbon Network was provided by the NSF Network grant no. 955713 and the NSF SEARCH grant no. 1331083. We thank S. Smith, C. Shaw, and J. Y. Jung for providing access to some of the SOC profile data. Contributions of F.M.H. were supported by the Reducing Uncertainties in Biogeochemical Interactions through Synthesis and Computation Science Focus Area (RUBISCO SFA), which is sponsored by the RGMA activity of the Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling (EESM) Program in the Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD) of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is managed by UT-Battelle LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Contributions of E.S. were supported by NSF grant 1841400.

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