Spatial Heterogeneity of Soil Carbon Exchanges and Their Drivers in a Boreal Forest

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahbaz ◽  
Per Bengtson ◽  
Jordan R. Mertesa ◽  
Bernd Kulessa ◽  
Natascha Kljun
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Soil Carbon

Agriculture in the Boreal Forest: Understanding the Impact of Land Use Change on Soil Carbon for Developing Sustainable Community Food Systems 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bysouth ◽  
Merritt Turetsky ◽  
Andrew Spring
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Soil Carbon Stocks ◽  
Carbon Losses

<p>Climate change is causing rapid warming at northern high latitudes and disproportionately affecting ecosystem services that northern communities rely upon. In Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT), climate change is impacting the access and availability of traditional foods that are critical for community health and well-being. With climate change potentially expanding the envelope of suitable agricultural land northward, many communities in the NWT are evaluating including agriculture in their food systems. However, the conversion of boreal forest to agriculture may degrade the carbon rich soils that characterize the region, resulting in large carbon losses to the atmosphere and the depletion of existing ecosystem services associated with the accumulation of soil organic matter. Here, we first summarize the results of 35 publications that address land use change from boreal forest to agriculture, with the goal of understanding the magnitude and drivers of carbon stock changes with time-since-land use change. Results from the literature synthesis show that conversion of boreal forest to agriculture can result in up to ~57% of existing soil carbon stocks being lost 30 years after land use change occurs. In addition, a three-way interaction with soil carbon, pH and time-since-land use change is observed where soils become more basic with increasing time-since-land use change, coinciding with declines in soil carbon stocks. This relationship is important when looking at the types of crops communities are interested in growing and the type of agriculture associated with cultivating these crops. Partnered communities have identified crops such as berry bushes, root vegetables, potatoes and corn as crops they are interested in growing. As berry bushes grow in acidic conditions and the other mentioned crops grow in more neutral conditions, site selection and management practices associated with growing these crops in appropriate pH environments will be important for managing soil carbon in new agricultural systems in the NWT. Secondly, we also present community scale soil data assessing variation in soil carbon stocks in relation to potential soil fertility metrics targeted to community identified crops of interest for two communities in the NWT.  We collected 192 soil cores from two communities to determine carbon stocks along gradients of potential agriculture suitability. Our field soil carbon measurements in collaboration with the partnered NWT communities show that land use conversions associated with agricultural development could translate to carbon losses ranging from 2.7-11.4 kg C/m<sup>2</sup> depending on the type of soil, agricultural suitability class, and type of land use change associated with cultivation. These results highlight the importance of managing soil carbon in northern agricultural systems and can be used to emphasize the need for new community scale data relating to agricultural land use change in boreal soils. Through the collection of this data, we hope to provide northern communities with a more robust, community scale product that will allow them to make informed land use decisions relating to the cultivation of crops and the minimization of soil carbon losses while maintaining the culturally important traditional food system.</p>

scholarly journals The implications of microbial and substrate limitation for the fates of carbon in different organic soil horizon types of boreal forest ecosystems: a mechanistically based model analysis

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4477-4491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. He ◽  
Q. Zhuang ◽  
J. W. Harden ◽  
A. D. McGuire ◽  
Z. Fan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Microbial Activity ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Pool Size ◽  
Biogeochemical Processes ◽  
Soil Horizons ◽  
Carbon Decomposition ◽  
Decomposition Models

Abstract. The large amount of soil carbon in boreal forest ecosystems has the potential to influence the climate system if released in large quantities in response to warming. Thus, there is a need to better understand and represent the environmental sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition. Most soil carbon decomposition models rely on empirical relationships omitting key biogeochemical mechanisms and their response to climate change is highly uncertain. In this study, we developed a multi-layer microbial explicit soil decomposition model framework for boreal forest ecosystems. A thorough sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify dominating biogeochemical processes and to highlight structural limitations. Our results indicate that substrate availability (limited by soil water diffusion and substrate quality) is likely to be a major constraint on soil decomposition in the fibrous horizon (40–60% of soil organic carbon (SOC) pool size variation), while energy limited microbial activity in the amorphous horizon exerts a predominant control on soil decomposition (>70% of SOC pool size variation). Elevated temperature alleviated the energy constraint of microbial activity most notably in amorphous soils, whereas moisture only exhibited a marginal effect on dissolved substrate supply and microbial activity. Our study highlights the different decomposition properties and underlying mechanisms of soil dynamics between fibrous and amorphous soil horizons. Soil decomposition models should consider explicitly representing different boreal soil horizons and soil–microbial interactions to better characterize biogeochemical processes in boreal forest ecosystems. A more comprehensive representation of critical biogeochemical mechanisms of soil moisture effects may be required to improve the performance of the soil model we analyzed in this study.

Gas pooling: A sampling technique to overcome spatial heterogeneity of soil carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide fluxes

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 20-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Arias-Navarro ◽  
Eugenio Díaz-Pinés ◽  
Ralf Kiese ◽  
Todd S. Rosenstock ◽  
Mariana C. Rufino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Nitrous Oxide ◽  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Soil Carbon Dioxide

Spatial heterogeneity dynamics of soil carbon and nitrogen in the mini-patches during degeneration succession of grassland communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
乌云娜 Wuyunna ◽  
雒文涛 LUO Wentao ◽  
霍光伟 HUO Guangwei ◽  
李海山 LI Haishan ◽  
胡高娃 HU Gaowa
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Soil Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Grassland Communities

Spatial heterogeneity of aggregate stability and soil carbon in semi-arid rangeland

2002 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.B. Bird ◽  
J.E. Herrick ◽  
M.M. Wander ◽  
S.F. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Aggregate Stability ◽  
Semi Arid ◽  
Arid Rangeland

Carbon and nitrogen in the silt-size fraction and its HCl-hydrolysis residues from coarse-textured Canadian boreal forest soils

2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Preston ◽  
Charlotte E. Norris ◽  
Guy M. Bernard ◽  
David W. Beilman ◽  
Sylvie A. Quideau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Forest Soils ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Size Fraction ◽  
Soil C ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Total Soil ◽  
C Stocks ◽  
Canadian Boreal Forest

Preston, C. M., Norris, C. E., Bernard, G. M., Beilman, D. W., Quideau, S. A. and Wasylishen, R. E. 2014. Carbon and nitrogen in the silt-size fraction and its HCl-hydrolysis residues from coarse-textured Canadian boreal forest soils. Can. J. Soil Sci. 94: 157–168. Improving the capacity to predict changes in soil carbon (C) stocks in the Canadian boreal forest requires better information on the characteristics and age of soil carbon, especially more slowly cycling C in mineral soil. We characterized C in the silt-size fraction, as representative of C stabilized by mineral association, previously isolated in a study of soil profiles of four sandy boreal jack pine sites. Silt-size fraction accounted for 13–31% of the total soil C and 12–51% of the total soil N content. Solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that silt C was mostly dominated by alkyl and O,N-alkyl C, with low proportions of aryl C in most samples. Thus, despite the importance of fire in this region, there was little evidence of storage of pyrogenic C. We used HCl hydrolysis to isolate the oldest C within the silt-size fraction. Consistent with previous studies, this procedure removed 21–74% of C and 74–93% of N, leaving residues composed mainly of alkyl and aryl C. However, it failed to isolate consistently old C; 11 out of 16 samples had recent 14C ages (fraction of modern 14C > 1), although C-horizon samples were older, with Δ14C from –17 to –476‰. Our results indicate relatively young ages for C associated with the silt-size fractions in these sites, for which mineral soil C storage may be primarily limited by good drainage and coarse soil texture, exacerbated by losses due to periodic wildfire.

scholarly journals Evaluating CENTURY and Yasso soil carbon models for CO2emissions and organic carbon stocks of boreal forest soil with Bayesian multi‐model inference

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Ťupek ◽  
Samuli Launiainen ◽  
Mikko Peltoniemi ◽  
Risto Sievänen ◽  
Jari Perttunen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Forest Soil ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Model Inference

Application of the forest ecosystem model EFIMOD 2 to jack pine along the Boreal Forest Transect Case Study

2006 ◽  
Vol 86 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 171-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Shaw ◽  
Oleg Chertov ◽  
Alexander Komarov ◽  
Jagtar Bhatti ◽  
Marina Nadporozhskaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Forest Soil ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Stand Age ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Individual Tree

Sustainability of forest ecosystems and climate change are two critical issues for boreal forest ecosystems in Canada that require an understanding of the links and balance between productivity, soil processes and their interaction with natural and anth ropogenic disturbances. Forest ecosystem models can be used to understand and predict boreal forest ecosystem dynamics. EFIMOD 2 is an individual tree model of the forest-soil ecosystem capable of modelling nitrogen feedback to productivity in response to changes in soil moisture and temperature. It has been successfully applied in Europe, but has not been calibrated for any forest ecosystem in Canada. The objective of this study was to parameterize and validate EFIMOD 2 for jack pine in Canada. Simulated and measured results agreed for changes in tree biomass carbon and soil carbon and nitrogen with increasing stand age and across a climatic gradient from the southern to northern limits of the boreal forest. Preliminary results from scenario testing indicate that EFIMOD 2 can be successfully applied to predict the impacts of forest management practices and climate change in the absence of natural disturbances on jack pine in the boreal forest of Canada. Model development is underway to represent the effects of natural disturbances. Key words: EFIMOD 2, forest soil, carbon, nitrogen, model, jack pine

Vertical distribution of soil carbon in boreal forest under European beech and Norway spruce

2019 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yngvild Ransedokken ◽  
Johan Asplund ◽  
Mikael Ohlson ◽  
Line Nybakken
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Distribution ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Norway Spruce ◽  
European Beech

scholarly journals Variation in Soil Carbon Dioxide Efflux at Two Spatial Scales in a Topographically Complex Boreal Forest

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine C. Kelsey ◽  
Kimberly P. Wickland ◽  
Robert G. Striegl ◽  
Jason C. Neff
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Soil Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Efflux
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