Soil carbon loss by experimental warming in a tropical forest
Tropical soils contain one-third of the carbon stored in soils globally, so destabilization of soil organic matter caused by the warming predicted for tropical regions this century could accelerate climate change by releasing additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Theory predicts that warming should cause only modest carbon loss from tropical soils relative to those at higher latitudes, but there have been no warming experiments in tropical forests to test this.
In this study, Andrew T. Nottingham et al., showed that in situ experimental warming of a lowland tropical forest soil on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, caused an unexpectedly large increase in soil carbon dioxide emissions. Two years of warming of the whole soil profile by four degrees Celsius increased carbon dioxide emissions by 55 per cent compared to soils at ambient temperature. The additional carbon dioxide originated from heterotrophic rather than autotrophic sources, and equated to a loss of 8.2 ± 4.2 (one standard error) tonnes of carbon per hectare per year from the breakdown of soil organic matter. During this time, they detected no acclimation of respiration rates, no thermal compensation or change in the temperature sensitivity of enzyme activities, and no change in microbial carbon-use efficiency. These results demonstrate that soil carbon in tropical forests is highly sensitive to warming, creating a potentially substantial positive feedback to climate change.
Powered by Blogger.

Platform anthropocene Inc. or planthro is a New York
registered, globally active, not-for-profit public charity organization.
planthro targets scientists, students, citizens, governing
bodies, entrepreneurs and stakeholders concerned with the
concept of anthropocene and its multiple implications.
The organization aims at:
● conveying and sharing a lucid view of the complexity
characterizing human interaction with Earth,
● empowering individuals and organisations to work
collaboratively in economic, social, environmental, and
governance contexts,
● supporting and promoting informed and creative solutions
on sustainability, mitigation and adaptive strategies.
Find out more...
What do you think?
Have a comment, need more information, found an error, copyright claims, found a broken link, want to get involved, want to suggest a reference...
Write a comment on this page on this reference or get in touch with the project through the contact form on the corporate page www.planthro.org
No comments:
Post a Comment