Deforestation for agriculture leads to soil warming and enhanced litter decomposition in subarctic soils

Peplau, Tino; Poeplau, Christopher; Gregorich, Edward; Schroeder, Julia

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1063-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1063-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1063-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 5

Research article

|

17 Mar 2023

Research article |

| 17 Mar 2023

Deforestation for agriculture leads to soil warming and enhanced litter decomposition in subarctic soils

Tino Peplau, Christopher Poeplau, Edward Gregorich, and Julia Schroeder

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https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1063-2023-supplement

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Dataset to: Deforestation for agriculture leads to soil warming and enhanced litter decomposition in subarctic soils Tino Peplau, Christopher Poeplau, Edward Gregorich, and Julia Schroeder https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7219753

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Short summary

We buried tea bags and temperature loggers in a paired-plot design in soils under forest and agricultural land and retrieved them after 2 years to quantify the effect of land-use change on soil temperature and litter decomposition in subarctic agricultural systems. We could show that agricultural soils were on average 2 °C warmer than forests and that litter decomposition was enhanced. The results imply that deforestation amplifies effects of climate change on soil organic matter dynamics.