Deeper snow increases the net soil organic carbon accrual rate in moist acidic tussock tundra: 210Pb evidence from Arctic Alaska
Abstract
The net change in the carbon inventory of arctic tundra remains uncertain as global warming leads to shifts in arctic water and carbon cycles. To better understand the response of arctic tundra carbon to changes in winter precipitation amount, we investigated soil depth profiles of carbon concentration and radionuclide activities (7Be, 137Cs, 210Pb, and 241Am) in the active layer of a twenty-two-year winter snow depth manipulation experiment in moist acidic tussock tundra at Toolik Lake, Alaska. Depth correlations of cumulative carbon dry mass (g cm-2) vs. unsupported 210Pb activity (mBq g-1) were examined using a modified constant rate of supply (CRS) model. Results were best fit by two-slope CRS models indicating an apparent step temporal increase in the accumulation rate of soil organic carbon. Most of the best-fit model chronologies indicated that the increase in carbon accumulation rate apparently began and persisted after snow fence construction in 1994. The inhomogeneous nature of permafrost soils and their relatively low net carbon accumulation rates make it challenging to establish robust chronologic records. Nonetheless, the data obtained in this study support a decadal-scale increase in net soil organic carbon accumulation rate in the active layer of arctic moist acidic tussock tundra under conditionsmore »
- Authors:
-
[2];
[3];
[5];
[6]
- Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage, AK (United States); Univ. of Oulu (Finland)
- Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States)
- Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1780649
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357; SC0006607; 1504141; 1433063; 0119279; 0856728; 0632184; 9617643; 9321730
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 52; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1523-0430
- Publisher:
- Taylor & Francis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; carbon; Arctic Alaska; Pb-210; snow depth; tundra
Citation Formats
DeFranco, Karyn C., Ricketts, Michael P., Blanc-Betes, Elena, Welker, Jeffrey M., Gonzalez-Meler, Miquel A., and Sturchio, Neil C. Deeper snow increases the net soil organic carbon accrual rate in moist acidic tussock tundra: 210Pb evidence from Arctic Alaska. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1080/15230430.2020.1802864.
DeFranco, Karyn C., Ricketts, Michael P., Blanc-Betes, Elena, Welker, Jeffrey M., Gonzalez-Meler, Miquel A., & Sturchio, Neil C. Deeper snow increases the net soil organic carbon accrual rate in moist acidic tussock tundra: 210Pb evidence from Arctic Alaska. United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1802864
DeFranco, Karyn C., Ricketts, Michael P., Blanc-Betes, Elena, Welker, Jeffrey M., Gonzalez-Meler, Miquel A., and Sturchio, Neil C. Tue .
"Deeper snow increases the net soil organic carbon accrual rate in moist acidic tussock tundra: 210Pb evidence from Arctic Alaska". United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2020.1802864. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1780649.
@article{osti_1780649,
title = {Deeper snow increases the net soil organic carbon accrual rate in moist acidic tussock tundra: 210Pb evidence from Arctic Alaska},
author = {DeFranco, Karyn C. and Ricketts, Michael P. and Blanc-Betes, Elena and Welker, Jeffrey M. and Gonzalez-Meler, Miquel A. and Sturchio, Neil C.},
abstractNote = {The net change in the carbon inventory of arctic tundra remains uncertain as global warming leads to shifts in arctic water and carbon cycles. To better understand the response of arctic tundra carbon to changes in winter precipitation amount, we investigated soil depth profiles of carbon concentration and radionuclide activities (7Be, 137Cs, 210Pb, and 241Am) in the active layer of a twenty-two-year winter snow depth manipulation experiment in moist acidic tussock tundra at Toolik Lake, Alaska. Depth correlations of cumulative carbon dry mass (g cm-2) vs. unsupported 210Pb activity (mBq g-1) were examined using a modified constant rate of supply (CRS) model. Results were best fit by two-slope CRS models indicating an apparent step temporal increase in the accumulation rate of soil organic carbon. Most of the best-fit model chronologies indicated that the increase in carbon accumulation rate apparently began and persisted after snow fence construction in 1994. The inhomogeneous nature of permafrost soils and their relatively low net carbon accumulation rates make it challenging to establish robust chronologic records. Nonetheless, the data obtained in this study support a decadal-scale increase in net soil organic carbon accumulation rate in the active layer of arctic moist acidic tussock tundra under conditions of increased winter precipitation.},
doi = {10.1080/15230430.2020.1802864},
journal = {Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research},
number = 1,
volume = 52,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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