DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Massive peatland carbon banks vulnerable to rising temperatures

Abstract

Peatlands contain one-third of the world’s soil carbon (C). If destabilized, decomposition of this vast C bank could accelerate climate warming; however, the likelihood of this outcome remains unknown. Here, we examine peatland C stability through five years of whole-ecosystem warming and two years of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (eCO2). Warming exponentially increased methane (CH4) emissions and enhanced CH4 production rates throughout the entire soil profile; although surface CH4 production rates remain much greater than those at depth. Additionally, older deeper C sources played a larger role in decomposition following prolonged warming. Most troubling, decreases in CO2:CH4 ratios in gas production, porewater concentrations, and emissions, indicate that the peatland is becoming more methanogenic with warming. We observed limited evidence of eCO2 effects. Our results suggest that ecosystem responses are largely driven by surface peat, but that the vast C bank at depth in peatlands is responsive to prolonged warming.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [5];  [4];  [6]
  1. Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States); Chapman Univ., Orange, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
  3. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  4. Chapman Univ., Orange, CA (United States)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1630519
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1638023
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-154135
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; SC0014416; SC00008092; SC0007144; SC0012088; AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Carbon cycle; climate-change ecology; carbon cycle, climate change ecology

Citation Formats

Hopple, A. M., Wilson, R. M., Kolton, M., Zalman, C. A., Chanton, J. P., Kostka, J., Hanson, P. J., Keller, J. K., and Bridgham, S. D. Massive peatland carbon banks vulnerable to rising temperatures. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16311-8.
Hopple, A. M., Wilson, R. M., Kolton, M., Zalman, C. A., Chanton, J. P., Kostka, J., Hanson, P. J., Keller, J. K., & Bridgham, S. D. Massive peatland carbon banks vulnerable to rising temperatures. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16311-8
Hopple, A. M., Wilson, R. M., Kolton, M., Zalman, C. A., Chanton, J. P., Kostka, J., Hanson, P. J., Keller, J. K., and Bridgham, S. D. Tue . "Massive peatland carbon banks vulnerable to rising temperatures". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16311-8. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1630519.
@article{osti_1630519,
title = {Massive peatland carbon banks vulnerable to rising temperatures},
author = {Hopple, A. M. and Wilson, R. M. and Kolton, M. and Zalman, C. A. and Chanton, J. P. and Kostka, J. and Hanson, P. J. and Keller, J. K. and Bridgham, S. D.},
abstractNote = {Peatlands contain one-third of the world’s soil carbon (C). If destabilized, decomposition of this vast C bank could accelerate climate warming; however, the likelihood of this outcome remains unknown. Here, we examine peatland C stability through five years of whole-ecosystem warming and two years of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (eCO2). Warming exponentially increased methane (CH4) emissions and enhanced CH4 production rates throughout the entire soil profile; although surface CH4 production rates remain much greater than those at depth. Additionally, older deeper C sources played a larger role in decomposition following prolonged warming. Most troubling, decreases in CO2:CH4 ratios in gas production, porewater concentrations, and emissions, indicate that the peatland is becoming more methanogenic with warming. We observed limited evidence of eCO2 effects. Our results suggest that ecosystem responses are largely driven by surface peat, but that the vast C bank at depth in peatlands is responsive to prolonged warming.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-16311-8},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Tue May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 61 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Depth-specific CH4 production from anaerobic incubations. Positive CH4 production temperature responses from peat samples collected (a) 30 cm, (b) 50 cm, and (c) 75–200 cm bellow the hollow surface at S1 Bog and anaerobically incubated within 1 °C of in-situ temperatures. Depth increments are separated into statistically differentmore » groups due to a significant interaction between temperature and depth (p < 0.0001). Peat samples were collected 1–4 times per year during the growing season, and over the course of 4 years (2015–2018) throughout whole-ecosystem warming. Linear regressions with 95% confidence intervals are shown in black and gray, respectively. Colors represent different depth increments. A 50-cm outlier was excluded from (b); however, when this point was included the linear regression remained significant (r2= 0.10, p < 0.0001). Note differences in the y-scales among the panels.« less

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

A method for experimental heating of intact soil profiles for application to climate change experiments: EXPERIMENTAL HEATING OF INTACT SOIL PROFILES
journal, January 2011


Intermediate-scale community-level flux of CO2 and CH4 in a Minnesota peatland: putting the SPRUCE project in a global context
journal, August 2016


Small differences in ombrotrophy control regional-scale variation in methane cycling among Sphagnum-dominated peatlands
journal, June 2018


Attaining whole-ecosystem warming using air and deep-soil heating methods with an elevated CO 2 atmosphere
journal, January 2017

  • Hanson, Paul J.; Riggs, Jeffery S.; Nettles, W. Robert
  • Biogeosciences, Vol. 14, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.5194/bg-14-861-2017

Global Carbon Budget 2019
journal, January 2019

  • Friedlingstein, Pierre; Jones, Matthew W.; O'Sullivan, Michael
  • Earth System Science Data, Vol. 11, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.5194/essd-11-1783-2019

Long-term effects of climate change on vegetation and carbon dynamics in peat bogs
journal, January 2008

  • Heijmans, Monique M. P. D.; Mauquoy, Dmitri; van Geel, Bas
  • Journal of Vegetation Science, Vol. 19, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.3170/2008-8-18368

Potential carbon emissions dominated by carbon dioxide from thawed permafrost soils
journal, June 2016

  • Schädel, Christina; Bader, Martin K. -F.; Schuur, Edward A. G.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3054

Performance of catalytically condensed carbon for use in accelerator mass spectrometry
journal, November 1984

  • Vogel, J. S.; Southon, J. R.; Nelson, D. E.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 5, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1016/0168-583X(84)90529-9

Three decades of global methane sources and sinks
journal, September 2013

  • Kirschke, Stefanie; Bousquet, Philippe; Ciais, Philippe
  • Nature Geoscience, Vol. 6, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1955

Organic matter transformation in the peat column at Marcell Experimental Forest: Humification and vertical stratification: Organic matter dynamics
journal, April 2014

  • Tfaily, Malak M.; Cooper, William T.; Kostka, Joel E.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 119, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1002/2013JG002492

Surface production fuels deep heterotrophic respiration in northern peatlands: HETEROTROPHIC RESPIRATION IN PEATLANDS
journal, December 2013

  • Elizabeth Corbett, J.; Burdige, David J.; Tfaily, Malak M.
  • Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 27, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1002/2013GB004677

Does dissolved organic matter or solid peat fuel anaerobic respiration in peatlands?
journal, September 2019


Methanogenic archaea: ecologically relevant differences in energy conservation
journal, June 2008

  • Thauer, Rudolf K.; Kaster, Anne-Kristin; Seedorf, Henning
  • Nature Reviews Microbiology, Vol. 6, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1931

Methane emissions from wetlands: biogeochemical, microbial, and modeling perspectives from local to global scales
journal, February 2013

  • Bridgham, Scott D.; Cadillo-Quiroz, Hinsby; Keller, Jason K.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12131

A Daily Soil Temperature Dataset and Soil Temperature Climatology of the Contiguous United States
journal, August 2003


Boreal forest health and global change
journal, August 2015


Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming
journal, November 2016

  • Carey, Joanna C.; Tang, Jianwu; Templer, Pamela H.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 48
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1605365113

Present state of global wetland extent and wetland methane modelling: conclusions from a model inter-comparison project (WETCHIMP)
journal, January 2013


Linking habitat modification to catastrophic shifts and vegetation patterns in bogs
journal, June 2007


Moving Beyond Global Warming Potentials to Quantify the Climatic Role of Ecosystems
journal, May 2015


Refuge Lake Reclassification in 620 Minnesota Cisco Lakes under Future Climate Scenarios
journal, September 2017

  • Jiang, Liping; Fang, Xing; Chen, Gang
  • Water, Vol. 9, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.3390/w9090675

Discussion Reporting of 14 C Data
journal, January 1977


Short-term response of methane fluxes and methanogen activity to water table and soil warming manipulations in an Alaskan peatland
journal, January 2008

  • Turetsky, M. R.; Treat, C. C.; Waldrop, M. P.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113
  • DOI: 10.1029/2007JG000496

Effects of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations on CH4 and N2O Emission from Rice Soil: An Experiment in Controlled-environment Chambers
journal, February 2006


Carbon respiration from subsurface peat accelerated by climate warming in the subarctic
journal, July 2009

  • Dorrepaal, Ellen; Toet, Sylvia; van Logtestijn, Richard S. P.
  • Nature, Vol. 460, Issue 7255
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature08216

Rapid Carbon Response of Peatlands to Climate Change
journal, November 2008

  • Bridgham, Scott D.; Pastor, John; Dewey, Bradley
  • Ecology, Vol. 89, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1890/08-0279.1

Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.