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Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway

Juselius, T. ; Ravolainen, V. ; Zhang, H. ; Piilo, S. ; Müller, M. LU orcid ; Gallego-Sala, A. and Väliranta, M. (2022) In Scientific Reports 12(1).
Abstract

High latitude organic soils form a significant carbon storage and deposition of these soils is largely driven by climate. Svalbard, Norway, has experienced millennial-scale climate variations and in general organic soil processes have benefitted from warm and humid climate phases while cool late Holocene has been unfavourable. In addition to direct effect of cool climate, the advancing glaciers have restricted the vegetation growth, thus soil accumulation. Since the early 1900’s climate has been warming at unprecedented rate, assumingly promoting organic soil establishment. Here we present results of multiple organic soil profiles collected from Svalbard. The profiles have robust chronologies accompanied by soil property analyses,... (More)

High latitude organic soils form a significant carbon storage and deposition of these soils is largely driven by climate. Svalbard, Norway, has experienced millennial-scale climate variations and in general organic soil processes have benefitted from warm and humid climate phases while cool late Holocene has been unfavourable. In addition to direct effect of cool climate, the advancing glaciers have restricted the vegetation growth, thus soil accumulation. Since the early 1900’s climate has been warming at unprecedented rate, assumingly promoting organic soil establishment. Here we present results of multiple organic soil profiles collected from Svalbard. The profiles have robust chronologies accompanied by soil property analyses, carbon stock estimations and testate amoeba data as a proxy for soil moisture. Our results reveal relatively recent initiation of organic soils across the Isfjorden area. The initiation processes could be linked to glacier retreat, and improvement of growing conditions and soil stabilization. Carbon stock analyses suggested that our sites are hot spots for organic matter accumulation. Testate amoebae data suggested drying of soil surfaces, but the reason remained unresolved. If continued, such a process may lead to carbon release. Our data suggest that detailed palaeoecological data from the Arctic is needed to depict the on-going processes and to estimate future trajectories.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Organic soil, Carbon stocks, Ecological
in
Scientific Reports
volume
12
issue
1
article number
4679
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:35304558
  • scopus:85126670820
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-08652-9
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Funding Information: T.J. acknowledges funding from Tellervo ja Juuso Waldenin säätiö. M.V. acknowledges funding from Suomen tiedeseura and Academy of Finland. We thank Johannes Niemi for fieldwork assistance. V.R. acknowledges fieldwork funding from The Norwegian Polar Institute. Bernt Bye and Oddveig Ørvoll from Norsk Polarinstitut prepared the maps of the study sites. Open access was funded by Helsinki University Library. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
id
80e2456a-620f-4356-b8ba-84ad5409fafa
date added to LUP
2022-06-16 10:21:38
date last changed
2024-06-14 18:30:50
@article{80e2456a-620f-4356-b8ba-84ad5409fafa,
  abstract     = {{<p>High latitude organic soils form a significant carbon storage and deposition of these soils is largely driven by climate. Svalbard, Norway, has experienced millennial-scale climate variations and in general organic soil processes have benefitted from warm and humid climate phases while cool late Holocene has been unfavourable. In addition to direct effect of cool climate, the advancing glaciers have restricted the vegetation growth, thus soil accumulation. Since the early 1900’s climate has been warming at unprecedented rate, assumingly promoting organic soil establishment. Here we present results of multiple organic soil profiles collected from Svalbard. The profiles have robust chronologies accompanied by soil property analyses, carbon stock estimations and testate amoeba data as a proxy for soil moisture. Our results reveal relatively recent initiation of organic soils across the Isfjorden area. The initiation processes could be linked to glacier retreat, and improvement of growing conditions and soil stabilization. Carbon stock analyses suggested that our sites are hot spots for organic matter accumulation. Testate amoebae data suggested drying of soil surfaces, but the reason remained unresolved. If continued, such a process may lead to carbon release. Our data suggest that detailed palaeoecological data from the Arctic is needed to depict the on-going processes and to estimate future trajectories.</p>}},
  author       = {{Juselius, T. and Ravolainen, V. and Zhang, H. and Piilo, S. and Müller, M. and Gallego-Sala, A. and Väliranta, M.}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  keywords     = {{Organic soil; Carbon stocks; Ecological}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Newly initiated carbon stock, organic soil accumulation patterns and main driving factors in the High Arctic Svalbard, Norway}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08652-9}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-022-08652-9}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}