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Inclusion of soil carbon lateral movement alters terrestrial carbon budget in China.

ABSTRACT: The lateral movement of soil carbon has a profound effect on the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems; however, it has never been quantified in China, which is one of the strongest soil erosion areas in the world. In this study, we estimated that the overall soil erosion in China varies from 11.27 to 18.17 Pg yr(-1) from 1982 to 2011, accounting for 7-21% of total soil erosion globally. Soil erosion induces a substantial lateral redistribution of soil organic carbon ranging from 0.64 to 1.04 Pg C yr(-1). The erosion-induced carbon flux ranges from a 0.19 Pg C yr(-1) carbon source to a 0.24 Pg C yr(-1) carbon sink in the terrestrial ecosystem, which is potentially comparable in magnitude to previously estimated total carbon budget of China (0.19 to 0.26 Pg yr(-1)). Our results showed that the lateral movement of soil carbon strongly alters the carbon budget in China, and highlighted the urgent need to integrate the processes of soil erosion into the regional or global carbon cycle estimates.

SUBMITTER: Zhang H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4246205 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Inclusion of soil carbon lateral movement alters terrestrial carbon budget in China.

Zhang Haicheng H Liu Shuguang S Yuan Wenping W Dong Wenjie W Ye Aizhong A Xie Xianhong X Chen Yang Y Liu Dan D Cai Wenwen W Mao Yuna Y

Scientific reports 20141128

The lateral movement of soil carbon has a profound effect on the carbon budget of terrestrial ecosystems; however, it has never been quantified in China, which is one of the strongest soil erosion areas in the world. In this study, we estimated that the overall soil erosion in China varies from 11.27 to 18.17 Pg yr(-1) from 1982 to 2011, accounting for 7-21% of total soil erosion globally. Soil erosion induces a substantial lateral redistribution of soil organic carbon ranging from 0.64 to 1.04 ...[more]

PMID: 25430970

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Project description:Although the terrestrial biosphere absorbs about 25 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the rate of land carbon uptake remains highly uncertain, leading to uncertainties in climate projections1,2. Understanding the factors that limit or drive land carbon storage is therefore important for improving climate predictions. One potential limiting factor for land carbon uptake is soil moisture, which can reduce gross primary production through ecosystem water stress3,4, cause vegetation mortality5 and further exacerbate climate extremes due to land-atmosphere feedbacks6. Previous work has explored the impact of soil-moisture availability on past carbon-flux variability3,7,8. However, the influence of soil-moisture variability and trends on the long-term carbon sink and the mechanisms responsible for associated carbon losses remain uncertain. Here we use the data output from four Earth system models9 from a series of experiments to analyse the responses of terrestrial net biome productivity to soil-moisture changes, and find that soil-moisture variability and trends induce large CO2 fluxes (about two to three gigatons of carbon per year; comparable with the land carbon sink itself1) throughout the twenty-first century. Subseasonal and interannual soil-moisture variability generate CO2 as a result of the nonlinear response of photosynthesis and net ecosystem exchange to soil-water availability and of the increased temperature and vapour pressure deficit caused by land-atmosphere interactions. Soil-moisture variability reduces the present land carbon sink, and its increase and drying trends in several regions are expected to reduce it further. Our results emphasize that the capacity of continents to act as a future carbon sink critically depends on the nonlinear response of carbon fluxes to soil moisture and on land-atmosphere interactions. This suggests that the increasing trend in carbon uptake rate may not be sustained past the middle of the century and could result in accelerated atmospheric CO2 growth.

Dataset Information

Inclusion of soil carbon lateral movement alters terrestrial carbon budget in China.

Publications

Inclusion of soil carbon lateral movement alters terrestrial carbon budget in China.

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