The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements
Abstract
Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined. An increased flow of carbon from the atmosphere into soil pools could help mitigate anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and climate change. Yet we do not know how quickly soils might respond because the age distribution of soil carbon is uncertain. Here we used 789 radiocarbon (Δ14C) profiles, along with other geospatial information, to create globally gridded datasets of mineral soil Δ14C and mean age. We found that soil depth is a primary driver of Δ14C, whereas climate (for example, mean annual temperature) is a major control on the spatial pattern of Δ14C in surface soil. Integrated to a depth of 1m, global soil carbon has a mean age of 4,830 ± 1,730 yr, with older carbon in deeper layers and permafrost regions. In contrast, vertically resolved land models simulate Δ14C values that imply younger carbon ages and a more rapid carbon turnover. Overall, our data-derived estimates of older mean soil carbon age suggest that soils will accumulate less carbon than predicted by current Earth system models over the twenty-first century. Reconciling these models with the global distribution of soil radiocarbon will require a better representation of the mechanisms thatmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
- Max Planck Inst. for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Lab.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); European Research Council (ERC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1782154
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; 695101; SC0014374
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nature Geoscience
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 13; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1752-0894
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; carbon cycle; climate-change ecology
Citation Formats
Shi, Zheng, Allison, Steven D., He, Yujie, Levine, Paul A., Hoyt, Alison M., Beem-Miller, Jeffrey, Zhu, Qing, Wieder, William R., Trumbore, Susan, and Randerson, James T. The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41561-020-0596-z.
Shi, Zheng, Allison, Steven D., He, Yujie, Levine, Paul A., Hoyt, Alison M., Beem-Miller, Jeffrey, Zhu, Qing, Wieder, William R., Trumbore, Susan, & Randerson, James T. The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0596-z
Shi, Zheng, Allison, Steven D., He, Yujie, Levine, Paul A., Hoyt, Alison M., Beem-Miller, Jeffrey, Zhu, Qing, Wieder, William R., Trumbore, Susan, and Randerson, James T. Mon .
"The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0596-z. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1782154.
@article{osti_1782154,
title = {The age distribution of global soil carbon inferred from radiocarbon measurements},
author = {Shi, Zheng and Allison, Steven D. and He, Yujie and Levine, Paul A. and Hoyt, Alison M. and Beem-Miller, Jeffrey and Zhu, Qing and Wieder, William R. and Trumbore, Susan and Randerson, James T.},
abstractNote = {Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined. An increased flow of carbon from the atmosphere into soil pools could help mitigate anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and climate change. Yet we do not know how quickly soils might respond because the age distribution of soil carbon is uncertain. Here we used 789 radiocarbon (Δ14C) profiles, along with other geospatial information, to create globally gridded datasets of mineral soil Δ14C and mean age. We found that soil depth is a primary driver of Δ14C, whereas climate (for example, mean annual temperature) is a major control on the spatial pattern of Δ14C in surface soil. Integrated to a depth of 1m, global soil carbon has a mean age of 4,830 ± 1,730 yr, with older carbon in deeper layers and permafrost regions. In contrast, vertically resolved land models simulate Δ14C values that imply younger carbon ages and a more rapid carbon turnover. Overall, our data-derived estimates of older mean soil carbon age suggest that soils will accumulate less carbon than predicted by current Earth system models over the twenty-first century. Reconciling these models with the global distribution of soil radiocarbon will require a better representation of the mechanisms that control carbon persistence in soils.},
doi = {10.1038/s41561-020-0596-z},
journal = {Nature Geoscience},
number = 8,
volume = 13,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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