Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science 358 (2017): 101-105, doi:10.1126/science.aan2874.
Description:
In a 26-year soil warming experiment in a mid-latitude hardwood forest, we documented changes in soil carbon cycling to investigate the potential consequences for the climate system. We found that soil warming results in a four-phase pattern of soil organic matter decay and carbon dioxide fluxes to the atmosphere, with phases of substantial soil carbon loss alternating with phases of no detectable loss. Several factors combine to affect the timing, magnitude, and thermal acclimation of soil carbon loss. These include depletion of microbially accessible carbon pools, reductions in microbial biomass, a shift in microbial carbon use efficiency, and changes in microbial community composition. Our results support projections of a long-term, self-reinforcing carbon feedback from mid-latitude forests to the climate system as the world warms.
Description:
This research has been supported by grants from the Department of Energy - DE-SC0010740; DOE DE-SC0016590: and the National Science Foundation - DEB 1237491 (LTER) ; DEB 1456528 (LTREB).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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