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Emergent temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon driven by mineral associations

Georgiou, Katerina ; Koven, Charles D. ; Wieder, William R. ; Hartman, Melannie D. ; Riley, William J. ; Pett-Ridge, Jennifer ; Bouskill, Nicholas J. ; Abramoff, Rose Z. ; Slessarev, Eric W. and Ahlström, Anders LU orcid , et al. (2024) In Nature Geoscience 17(3). p.205-212
Abstract

Soil organic matter decomposition and its interactions with climate depend on whether the organic matter is associated with soil minerals. However, data limitations have hindered global-scale analyses of mineral-associated and particulate soil organic carbon pools and their benchmarking in Earth system models used to estimate carbon cycle–climate feedbacks. Here we analyse observationally derived global estimates of soil carbon pools to quantify their relative proportions and compute their climatological temperature sensitivities as the decline in carbon with increasing temperature. We find that the climatological temperature sensitivity of particulate carbon is on average 28% higher than that of mineral-associated carbon, and up to 53%... (More)

Soil organic matter decomposition and its interactions with climate depend on whether the organic matter is associated with soil minerals. However, data limitations have hindered global-scale analyses of mineral-associated and particulate soil organic carbon pools and their benchmarking in Earth system models used to estimate carbon cycle–climate feedbacks. Here we analyse observationally derived global estimates of soil carbon pools to quantify their relative proportions and compute their climatological temperature sensitivities as the decline in carbon with increasing temperature. We find that the climatological temperature sensitivity of particulate carbon is on average 28% higher than that of mineral-associated carbon, and up to 53% higher in cool climates. Moreover, the distribution of carbon between these underlying soil carbon pools drives the emergent climatological temperature sensitivity of bulk soil carbon stocks. However, global models vary widely in their predictions of soil carbon pool distributions. We show that the global proportion of model pools that are conceptually similar to mineral-protected carbon ranges from 16 to 85% across Earth system models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 and offline land models, with implications for bulk soil carbon ages and ecosystem responsiveness. To improve projections of carbon cycle–climate feedbacks, it is imperative to assess underlying soil carbon pools to accurately predict the distribution and vulnerability of soil carbon.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Geoscience
volume
17
issue
3
pages
8 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85185332098
ISSN
1752-0894
DOI
10.1038/s41561-024-01384-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c5886deb-20a3-4233-81cb-0737d71292b2
date added to LUP
2024-03-20 15:06:07
date last changed
2024-03-20 15:07:29
@article{c5886deb-20a3-4233-81cb-0737d71292b2,
  abstract     = {{<p>Soil organic matter decomposition and its interactions with climate depend on whether the organic matter is associated with soil minerals. However, data limitations have hindered global-scale analyses of mineral-associated and particulate soil organic carbon pools and their benchmarking in Earth system models used to estimate carbon cycle–climate feedbacks. Here we analyse observationally derived global estimates of soil carbon pools to quantify their relative proportions and compute their climatological temperature sensitivities as the decline in carbon with increasing temperature. We find that the climatological temperature sensitivity of particulate carbon is on average 28% higher than that of mineral-associated carbon, and up to 53% higher in cool climates. Moreover, the distribution of carbon between these underlying soil carbon pools drives the emergent climatological temperature sensitivity of bulk soil carbon stocks. However, global models vary widely in their predictions of soil carbon pool distributions. We show that the global proportion of model pools that are conceptually similar to mineral-protected carbon ranges from 16 to 85% across Earth system models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 and offline land models, with implications for bulk soil carbon ages and ecosystem responsiveness. To improve projections of carbon cycle–climate feedbacks, it is imperative to assess underlying soil carbon pools to accurately predict the distribution and vulnerability of soil carbon.</p>}},
  author       = {{Georgiou, Katerina and Koven, Charles D. and Wieder, William R. and Hartman, Melannie D. and Riley, William J. and Pett-Ridge, Jennifer and Bouskill, Nicholas J. and Abramoff, Rose Z. and Slessarev, Eric W. and Ahlström, Anders and Parton, William J. and Pellegrini, Adam F.A. and Pierson, Derek and Sulman, Benjamin N. and Zhu, Qing and Jackson, Robert B.}},
  issn         = {{1752-0894}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{205--212}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Geoscience}},
  title        = {{Emergent temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon driven by mineral associations}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01384-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41561-024-01384-7}},
  volume       = {{17}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}