Assessing carbon storage capacity and saturation across six central US grasslands using data–model integration
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Published:2023-07-12
Issue:13
Volume:20
Page:2707-2725
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ISSN:1726-4189
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Container-title:Biogeosciences
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Biogeosciences
Author:
Wilcox Kevin R., Collins Scott L., Knapp Alan K., Pockman William, Shi Zheng, Smith Melinda D., Luo YiqiORCID
Abstract
Abstract. Future global changes will impact carbon (C) fluxes and
pools in most terrestrial ecosystems and the feedback of terrestrial carbon
cycling to atmospheric CO2. Determining the vulnerability of C in ecosystems to future environmental change is thus vital for targeted land management and policy. The C capacity of an ecosystem is a function of its C inputs
(e.g., net primary productivity – NPP) and how long C remains in the system
before being respired back to the atmosphere. The proportion of C capacity
currently stored by an ecosystem (i.e., its C saturation) provides information
about the potential for long-term C pools to be altered by environmental and
land management regimes. We estimated C capacity, C saturation, NPP, and
ecosystem C residence time in six US grasslands spanning temperature and
precipitation gradients by integrating high temporal resolution C pool and
flux data with a process-based C model. As expected, NPP across grasslands
was strongly correlated with mean annual precipitation (MAP), yet C
residence time was not related to MAP or mean annual temperature (MAT). We link
soil temperature, soil moisture, and inherent C turnover rates (potentially
due to microbial function and tissue quality) as determinants of carbon residence time. Overall, we found that intermediates between extremes in moisture and
temperature had low C saturation, indicating that C in these grasslands may
trend upwards and be buffered against global change impacts. Hot and dry
grasslands had greatest C saturation due to both small C inputs through NPP
and high C turnover rates during soil moisture conditions favorable for
microbial activity. Additionally, leaching of soil C during monsoon events
may lead to C loss. C saturation was also high in tallgrass prairie due to
frequent fire that reduced inputs of aboveground plant material.
Accordingly, we suggest that both hot, dry ecosystems and those frequently
disturbed should be subject to careful land management and policy decisions
to prevent losses of C stored in these systems.
Funder
National Science Foundation Office of Science
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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