Comment on bg-2021-338
Abstract
Abstract. Global warming may lead to carbon transfers from soils to the atmosphere, yet this positive feedback to the climate system remains highly uncertain, especially in subsoils (Ilyina and Friedlingstein, 2016; Shi et al., 2018). Using natural geothermal soil warming gradients of up to +6.4 ∘C in subarctic grasslands (Sigurdsson et al., 2016), we show that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks decline strongly and linearly with warming (−2.8 t ha−1 ∘C−1). Comparison of SOC stock changes following medium-term (5 and 10 years) and long-term (>50 years) warming revealed that all SOC stock reduction occurred within the first 5 years of warming, after which continued warming no longer reduced SOC stocks. This rapid equilibration of SOC observed in Andosol suggests a critical role for ecosystem adaptations to warming and could imply short-lived soil carbon–climate feedbacks. Our data further revealed that the soil C loss occurred in all aggregate size fractions and that SOC stock reduction was only visible in topsoil (0–10 cm). SOC stocks in subsoil (10–30 cm), where plant roots were absent, showed apparent conservation after >50 years of warming. The observed depth-dependent warming responses indicate that explicit vertical resolution is a prerequisite for global models to accurately project future SOC stocks for this soil type and should be investigated for soils with other mineralogies.
Authors 28
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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University of Antwerp · Umeå University
Affiliation as printed
Climate Impacts Research Centre, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Agricultural University of Iceland
Affiliation as printed
Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, Borgarnes, Iceland
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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University of Antwerp · Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology · State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems · Lanzhou University
Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
School of Applied Meteorology, Institute of Ecology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Institute of Arid Agroecology, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
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University of Vienna · University of Antwerp
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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University of Antwerp · Colorado State University
Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Soil and Crop Sciences Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Systems Ecology, Department of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut
Affiliation as printed
Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Braunschweig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université Paris Sciences et Lettres · École Normale Supérieure - PSL · Laboratoire de Géologie de l’École Normale Supérieure
Affiliation as printed
Laboratoire de Géologie, École normale supérieure/CNRS, PSL Research University, Paris, France
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark
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Affiliation as printed
Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, Gunnarsholt, Hella, Iceland
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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Affiliation as printed
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
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Chinese Academy of Sciences · South China Botanical Garden
Affiliation as printed
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems & CAS Engineering Laboratory for Vegetation Ecosystem Restoration on Islands and Coastal Zones, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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Affiliation as printed
Icelandic Forest Research, Mógilsá, Reykjavík, Iceland
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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University of Vienna · International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Affiliation as printed
Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas · Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications · Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB
Affiliation as printed
CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF–CSIC–UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Affiliation as printed
Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab, Berkeley, California, USA
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Peter M. van Bodegom Aachen Environmental Biology Department Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)
Affiliation as printed
Environmental Biology Department, Institute of Environmental Sciences, CML, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
MEMEG, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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Affiliation as printed
Research Group Plants and Ecosystems, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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