Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2921-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2921-2022
Research article
 | 
15 Jun 2022
Research article |  | 15 Jun 2022

Massive warming-induced carbon loss from subalpine grassland soils in an altitudinal transplantation experiment

Matthias Volk, Matthias Suter, Anne-Lena Wahl, and Seraina Bassin

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on bg-2021-287', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 Jan 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Matthias Volk, 11 Jan 2022
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Matthias Volk, 25 Feb 2022
  • RC2: 'Comment on bg-2021-287', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jan 2022
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Matthias Volk, 25 Feb 2022

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (01 Mar 2022) by Ben Bond-Lamberty
AR by Matthias Volk on behalf of the Authors (29 Mar 2022)  Author's response    Author's tracked changes    Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (30 Mar 2022) by Ben Bond-Lamberty
ED: Publish as is (07 May 2022) by Ben Bond-Lamberty
Short summary
Because soils are an important sink for greenhouse gasses, we subjected sub-alpine grassland to a six-level climate change treatment. Two independent methods showed that at warming > 1.5 °C the grassland ecosystem lost ca. 14 % or ca. 1 kg C m−2 in 5 years. This shrinking of the terrestrial C sink implies a substantial positive feedback to the atmospheric greenhouse effect. It is likely that this dramatic C loss is a transient effect before a new, climate-adjusted steady state is reached.
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