Abstract
Abstract. Northern peatlands have been a persistent natural carbon
sink since the Last Glacial Maximum. The continued growth and expansion of
these carbon-rich ecosystems could offset a large portion of anthropogenic
carbon emissions before the end of the present interglacial period. Here we
used an impeded drainage model and gridded data on the depth to bedrock and
the fraction of histosol-type soils to evaluate the limits to the growth
of northern peatland carbon stocks. Our results show that the potential
carbon stock in northern peatlands could reach a total of 875±125 Pg C
before the end of the present interglacial, which could, as a result, remove
330±200 Pg C of carbon from the atmosphere. We argue that northern
peatlands, together with the oceans, will potentially play an important role
in reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration over the next 5000 years.
Funder
Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
23 articles.
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