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:
-
[1];
[1];
[1];
[1];
[2];
[3];
[4];
[1]
- 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}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Implementing and Evaluating Variable Soil Thickness in the Community Land Model, Version 4.5 (CLM4.5)
journal, May 2016
- Brunke, Michael A.; Broxton, Patrick; Pelletier, Jon
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 29, Issue 9
Atmospheric Radiocarbon for the Period 1950–2010
journal, January 2013
- Hua, Quan; Barbetti, Mike; Rakowski, Andrzej Z.
- Radiocarbon, Vol. 55, Issue 4
Storage and stability of organic carbon in soils as related to depth, occlusion within aggregates, and attachment to minerals
journal, January 2013
- Schrumpf, M.; Kaiser, K.; Guggenberger, G.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 10, Issue 3
Preservation of organic matter in sediments promoted by iron
journal, March 2012
- Lalonde, Karine; Mucci, Alfonso; Ouellet, Alexandre
- Nature, Vol. 483, Issue 7388
Land-use contrasts reveal instability of subsoil organic carbon
journal, June 2016
- Hobley, Eleanor; Baldock, Jeff; Hua, Quan
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 2
The Land Use Model Intercomparison Project (LUMIP) contribution to CMIP6:
rationale and experimental design
journal, January 2016
- Lawrence, David M.; Hurtt, George C.; Arneth, Almut
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 9, Issue 9
Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback
journal, April 2015
- Schuur, E. A. G.; McGuire, A. D.; Schädel, C.
- Nature, Vol. 520, Issue 7546
Twenty Years of Atmospheric 14 Co 2 Observations At Schauinsland Station, Germany
journal, January 1997
- Levin, Ingeborg; Kromer, Bernd
- Radiocarbon, Vol. 39, Issue 2
Comparison With Global Soil Radiocarbon Observations Indicates Needed Carbon Cycle Improvements in the E3SM Land Model
journal, May 2019
- Chen, Jinsong; Zhu, Qing; Riley, William J.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 124, Issue 5
Impulse response functions of terrestrial carbon cycle models: method and application
journal, April 1999
- Thompson, Matthew V.; Randerson, James T.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 5, Issue 4
Model Structure and Climate Data Uncertainty in Historical Simulations of the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle (1850–2014)
journal, October 2019
- Bonan, Gordon B.; Lombardozzi, Danica L.; Wieder, William R.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 33, Issue 10
Mineral protection regulates long-term global preservation of natural organic carbon
journal, June 2019
- Hemingway, Jordon D.; Rothman, Daniel H.; Grant, Katherine E.
- Nature, Vol. 570, Issue 7760
Atmosphere–soil carbon transfer as a function of soil depth
journal, July 2018
- Balesdent, Jérôme; Basile-Doelsch, Isabelle; Chadoeuf, Joël
- Nature, Vol. 559, Issue 7715
The International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) System: Design, Theory, and Implementation
journal, November 2018
- Collier, Nathan; Hoffman, Forrest M.; Lawrence, David M.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 11
Soil carbon 4 per mille
journal, April 2017
- Minasny, Budiman; Malone, Brendan P.; McBratney, Alex B.
- Geoderma, Vol. 292
Higher climatological temperature sensitivity of soil carbon in cold than warm climates
journal, October 2017
- Koven, Charles D.; Hugelius, Gustaf; Lawrence, David M.
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 11
SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning
journal, February 2017
- Hengl, Tomislav; Mendes de Jesus, Jorge; Heuvelink, Gerard B. M.
- PLOS ONE, Vol. 12, Issue 2
Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems
journal, September 2014
- Carvalhais, Nuno; Forkel, Matthias; Khomik, Myroslava
- Nature, Vol. 514, Issue 7521
An open-source database for the synthesis of soil radiocarbon data: International Soil Radiocarbon Database (ISRaD) version 1.0
journal, January 2020
- Lawrence, Corey R.; Beem-Miller, Jeffrey; Hoyt, Alison M.
- Earth System Science Data, Vol. 12, Issue 1
Soil carbon debt of 12,000 years of human land use
journal, August 2017
- Sanderman, Jonathan; Hengl, Tomislav; Fiske, Gregory J.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 36
Globally rising soil heterotrophic respiration over recent decades
journal, August 2018
- Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Bailey, Vanessa L.; Chen, Min
- Nature, Vol. 560, Issue 7716
Predicting decadal trends and transient responses of radiocarbon storage and fluxes in a temperate forest soil
journal, January 2012
- Sierra, C. A.; Trumbore, S. E.; Davidson, E. A.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 9, Issue 8
Changes in soil organic carbon storage predicted by Earth system models during the 21st century
journal, January 2014
- Todd-Brown, K. E. O.; Randerson, J. T.; Hopkins, F.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 11, Issue 8
Evidence from chronosequence studies for a low carbon-storage potential of soils
journal, November 1990
- Schlesinger, William H.
- Nature, Vol. 348, Issue 6298
Direct observation of permafrost degradation and rapid soil carbon loss in tundra
journal, July 2019
- Plaza, César; Pegoraro, Elaine; Bracho, Rosvel
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 12, Issue 8
Fire frequency drives decadal changes in soil carbon and nitrogen and ecosystem productivity
journal, December 2017
- Pellegrini, Adam F. A.; Ahlström, Anders; Hobbie, Sarah E.
- Nature, Vol. 553, Issue 7687
The muddle of ages, turnover, transit, and residence times in the carbon cycle
journal, November 2016
- Sierra, Carlos A.; Müller, Markus; Metzler, Holger
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 5
Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change
journal, March 2006
- Davidson, Eric A.; Janssens, Ivan A.
- Nature, Vol. 440, Issue 7081
Faster turnover of new soil carbon inputs under increased atmospheric CO 2
journal, June 2017
- van Groenigen, Kees Jan; Osenberg, Craig W.; Terrer, César
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 10
Beyond clay: towards an improved set of variables for predicting soil organic matter content
journal, February 2018
- Rasmussen, Craig; Heckman, Katherine; Wieder, William R.
- Biogeochemistry, Vol. 137, Issue 3
Mineral control of soil organic carbon storage and turnover
journal, September 1997
- Torn, Margaret S.; Trumbore, Susan E.; Chadwick, Oliver A.
- Nature, Vol. 389, Issue 6647
Climate-driven thresholds in reactive mineral retention of soil carbon at the global scale
journal, November 2018
- Kramer, Marc G.; Chadwick, Oliver A.
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 8, Issue 12
IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP
journal, January 2013
- Reimer, Paula J.; Bard, Edouard; Bayliss, Alex
- Radiocarbon, Vol. 55, Issue 4
Rapid accumulation and turnover of soil carbon in a re-establishing forest
journal, July 1999
- Richter, Daniel D.; Markewitz, Daniel; Trumbore, Susan E.
- Nature, Vol. 400, Issue 6739
Representing Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Carbon Interactions in the E3SM Land Model: Development and Global Benchmarking
journal, July 2019
- Zhu, Qing; Riley, William J.; Tang, Jinyun
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 7
Effect of increasing CO 2 on the terrestrial carbon cycle
journal, December 2014
- Schimel, David; Stephens, Britton B.; Fisher, Joshua B.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 2
Temperature response of permafrost soil carbon is attenuated by mineral protection
journal, June 2018
- Gentsch, Norman; Wild, Birgit; Mikutta, Robert
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 24, Issue 8
MODIS Collection 5 global land cover: Algorithm refinements and characterization of new datasets
journal, January 2010
- Friedl, Mark A.; Sulla-Menashe, Damien; Tan, Bin
- Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 114, Issue 1
The effect of vertically resolved soil biogeochemistry and alternate soil C and N models on C dynamics of CLM4
journal, January 2013
- Koven, C. D.; Riley, W. J.; Subin, Z. M.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 10, Issue 11
Soil carbon cycling in a temperate forest: radiocarbon-based estimates of residence times, sequestration rates and partitioning of fluxes
journal, January 2000
- Gaudinski, Julia B.; Trumbore, Susan E.; Davidson, Eric A.
- Biogeochemistry, Vol. 51, Issue 1, p. 33-69
Greening of the Earth and its drivers
journal, April 2016
- Zhu, Zaichun; Piao, Shilong; Myneni, Ranga B.
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 8
Radiocarbon constraints imply reduced carbon uptake by soils during the 21st century
journal, September 2016
- He, Y.; Trumbore, S. E.; Torn, M. S.
- Science, Vol. 353, Issue 6306
Atmospheric Δ 14 CO 2 trend in Western European background air from 2000 to 2012
journal, March 2013
- Levin, Ingeborg; Kromer, Bernd; Hammer, Samuel
- Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, Vol. 65, Issue 1
The Community Land Model Version 5: Description of New Features, Benchmarking, and Impact of Forcing Uncertainty
journal, December 2019
- Lawrence, David M.; Fisher, Rosie A.; Koven, Charles D.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 12
Updated high-resolution grids of monthly climatic observations - the CRU TS3.10 Dataset: UPDATED HIGH-RESOLUTION GRIDS OF MONTHLY CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS
journal, May 2013
- Harris, I.; Jones, P. D.; Osborn, T. J.
- International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 34, Issue 3
Soil Organic Matter Persistence as a Stochastic Process: Age and Transit Time Distributions of Carbon in Soils
journal, October 2018
- Sierra, Carlos A.; Hoyt, Alison M.; He, Yujie
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 32, Issue 10
Radiocarbon and Soil Carbon Dynamics
journal, May 2009
- Trumbore, Susan
- Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Vol. 37, Issue 1
Discussion Reporting of 14 C Data
journal, January 1977
- Stuiver, Minze; Polach, Henry A.
- Radiocarbon, Vol. 19, Issue 3
Soil properties control decomposition of soil organic carbon: Results from data-assimilation analysis
journal, January 2016
- Xu, Xia; Shi, Zheng; Li, Dejun
- Geoderma, Vol. 262
Dynamics of C, N, P and S in grassland soils: a model
journal, February 1988
- Parton, W. J.; Stewart, J. W. B.; Cole, C. V.
- Biogeochemistry, Vol. 5, Issue 1