Global soil profiles indicate depth-dependent soil carbon losses under a warmer climate

Wang, Mingming; Guo, Xiaowei; Zhang, Shuai; Xiao, Liujun; Mishra, Umakant; Yang, Yuanhe; Zhu, Biao; Wang, Guocheng; Mao, Xiali; Qian, Tian; Jiang, Tong; Shi, Zhou; Luo, Zhongkui

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33278-w

Global soil profiles indicate depth-dependent soil carbon losses under a warmer climate

Journal Article · Tue Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33278-w· OSTI ID:1894609

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Mishra, Umakant ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[3]; Mao, Xiali ^[1]; Qian, Tian ^[1]; Jiang, Tong ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]

Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Peking Univ., Beijing (China)

Soil organic carbon (SOC) changes under future climate warming are difficult to quantify in situ. Here we apply an innovative approach combining space-for-time substitution with meta-analysis to SOC measurements in 113,013 soil profiles across the globe to estimate the effect of future climate warming on steady-state SOC stocks. We find that SOC stock will reduce by 6.0 ± 1.6% (mean±95% confidence interval), 4.8 ± 2.3% and 1.3 ± 4.0% at 0–0.3, 0.3–1 and 1–2 m soil depths, respectively, under 1 °C air warming, with additional 4.2%, 2.2% and 1.4% losses per every additional 1 °C warming, respectively. The largest proportional SOC losses occur in boreal forests. Existing SOC level is the predominant determinant of the spatial variability of SOC changes with higher percentage losses in SOC-rich soils. Our work demonstrates that warming induces more proportional SOC losses in topsoil than in subsoil, particularly from high-latitudinal SOC-rich systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Key Research Program of Ministry of Science and Technology of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 1894609

Report Number(s):: SAND2022-13305J; 710583

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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