Articles | Volume 21, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1277-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1277-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Mar 2024
Research article |
| 18 Mar 2024
| 18 Mar 2024
Moisture and temperature effects on the radiocarbon signature of respired carbon dioxide to assess stability of soil carbon in the Tibetan Plateau
Andrés Tangarife-Escobar
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Georg Guggenberger
Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Xiaojuan Feng
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Guohua Dai
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Carolina Urbina-Malo
Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Mina Azizi-Rad
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Carlos A. Sierra
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
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Carlos A. Sierra, Ingrid Chanca, Meinrat O. Andreae, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Hella van Asperen, Lars Borchardt, Santiago Botía, Luiz Antonio Candido, Caio S. C. Correa, Cléo Quaresma Dias-Junior, Markus Eritt, Annica Fröhlich, Luciana V. Gatti, Marcus Guderle, Samuel Hammer, Martin Heimann, Viviana Horna, Armin Jordan, Steffen Knabe, Richard Kneißl, Jost Valentin Lavric, Ingeborg Levin, Kita Macario, Juliana Menger, Heiko Moossen, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Michael Rothe, Christian Rödenbeck, Yago Santos, Axel Steinhof, Bruno Takeshi, Susan Trumbore, and Sönke Zaehle
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We propose an approach to obtain weights for calculating averages of variables from Earth system models (ESM) based on concepts from information theory. It quantifies a relative distance between model output and reality, even though it is impossible to know the absolute distance from model predictions to reality. The relative ranking among models is based on concepts of model selection and multi-model averages previously developed for simple statistical models, but adapted here for ESMs.
Valentina Lara, Carlos A. Sierra, Miguel A. Peña, Sebastián Ramirez, Diego Navarrete, Juan F. Phillips, and Álvaro Duque
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2959, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2959, 2025
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Impacts of deforestation on the soil level are commonly overlooked. Conversion of Amazon rainforest to pastures increases soil compaction and decreases soil carbon storage, with lasting effects over time and across soil depth. After decades, pasture accumulated soil carbon doesn't match the original forest stocks. These changes may worsen climate change by reducing the Amazon basin ability to store carbon, highlighting the need to protect these ecosystems, from canopy to soil.
Ingrid Chanca, Ingeborg Levin, Susan Trumbore, Kita Macario, Jost Lavric, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Alessandro Carioca de Araújo, Cléo Quaresma Dias Júnior, Hella van Asperen, Samuel Hammer, and Carlos A. Sierra
Biogeosciences, 22, 455–472, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-455-2025, 2025
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Maximiliano González-Sosa, Carlos A. Sierra, J. Andrés Quincke, Walter E. Baethgen, Susan Trumbore, and M. Virginia Pravia
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Norman Gentsch, Florin Laura Riechers, Jens Boy, Dörte Schweneker, Ulf Feuerstein, Diana Heuermann, and Georg Guggenberger
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Philipp Maurischat, Michael Seidel, Thorsten Dittmar, and Georg Guggenberger
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Agustín Sarquis and Carlos A. Sierra
Biogeosciences, 20, 1759–1771, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1759-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1759-2023, 2023
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Although plant litter is chemically and physically heterogenous and undergoes multiple transformations, models that represent litter dynamics often ignore this complexity. We used a multi-model inference framework to include information content in litter decomposition datasets and studied the time it takes for litter to decompose as measured by the transit time. In arid lands, the median transit time of litter is about 3 years and has a negative correlation with mean annual temperature.
Song Wang, Carlos Sierra, Yiqi Luo, Jinsong Wang, Weinan Chen, Yahai Zhang, Aizhong Ye, and Shuli Niu
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2023-33, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2023-33, 2023
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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Nitrogen is important for plant growth and carbon uptake, which is uaually limited in nature and can constrain carbon storage and impact efforts to combat climate change. We developed a new method of combining data and models to determine if and how much an ecosystem is nitrogen limited. This new method can help determine if and to what extent an ecosystem is nitrogen-limited, providing insight into nutrient limitations on a global scale and guiding ecosystem management decisions.
Andrea Scheibe, Carlos A. Sierra, and Marie Spohn
Biogeosciences, 20, 827–838, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-827-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-827-2023, 2023
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We explored carbon cycling in soils in three climate zones in Chile down to a depth of 6 m, using carbon isotopes. Our results show that microbial activity several meters below the soil surface is mostly fueled by recently fixed carbon and that strong decomposition of soil organic matter only occurs in the upper decimeters of the soils. The study shows that different layers of the critical zone are tightly connected and that processes in the deep soil depend on recently fixed carbon.
Jeffrey Prescott Beem-Miller, Craig Rasmussen, Alison May Hoyt, Marion Schrumpf, Georg Guggenberger, and Susan Trumbore
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1083, 2022
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We compared the age of persistent soil organic matter as well as active emissions of carbon dioxide from soils across a gradient of climate and geology. We found that clay minerals are more important than mean annual temperature for both persistent and actively cycling soil carbon, and that they may attenuate the sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition to temperature. Accounting for geology and soil development could therefore improve estimates of soil carbon stocks and changes.
Carlos A. Sierra, Verónika Ceballos-Núñez, Henrik Hartmann, David Herrera-Ramírez, and Holger Metzler
Biogeosciences, 19, 3727–3738, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3727-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3727-2022, 2022
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Empirical work that estimates the age of respired CO2 from vegetation tissue shows that it may take from years to decades to respire previously produced photosynthates. However, many ecosystem models represent respiration processes in a form that cannot reproduce these observations. In this contribution, we attempt to provide compelling evidence, based on recent research, with the aim to promote a change in the predominant paradigm implemented in ecosystem models.
Juan Pablo Almeida, Nicholas P. Rosenstock, Susanne K. Woche, Georg Guggenberger, and Håkan Wallander
Biogeosciences, 19, 3713–3726, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3713-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3713-2022, 2022
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Fungi living in symbiosis with tree roots can accumulate belowground, forming special tissues than can repel water. We measured the water repellency of organic material incubated belowground and correlated it with fungal growth. We found a positive association between water repellency and root symbiotic fungi. These results are important because an increase in soil water repellency can reduce the release of CO2 from soils into the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of greenhouse gasses.
Agustín Sarquis, Ignacio Andrés Siebenhart, Amy Theresa Austin, and Carlos A. Sierra
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3471–3488, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3471-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3471-2022, 2022
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Plant litter breakdown in aridlands is driven by processes different from those in more humid ecosystems. A better understanding of these processes will allow us to make better predictions of future carbon cycling. We have compiled aridec, a database of plant litter decomposition studies in aridlands and tested some modeling applications for potential users. Aridec is open for use and collaboration, and we hope it will help answer newer and more important questions as the database develops.
Norman Gentsch, Diana Heuermann, Jens Boy, Steffen Schierding, Nicolaus von Wirén, Dörte Schweneker, Ulf Feuerstein, Robin Kümmerer, Bernhard Bauer, and Georg Guggenberger
SOIL, 8, 269–281, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-269-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-269-2022, 2022
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This study focuses on the potential of catch crops as monocultures or mixtures to improve the soil water management and reduction of soil N leaching losses. All catch crop treatments preserved soil water for the main crop and their potential can be optimized by selecting suitable species and mixture compositions. Mixtures can compensate for the individual weaknesses of monocultures in N cycling by minimizing leaching losses and maximizing the N transfer to the main crop.
Xin Wang, Ting Liu, Liang Wang, Zongguang Liu, Erxiong Zhu, Simin Wang, Yue Cai, Shanshan Zhu, and Xiaojuan Feng
Biogeosciences, 18, 3015–3028, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3015-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3015-2021, 2021
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We show a comprehensive monitoring dataset on the discharge and carbon transport in a small alpine river on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, where riverine carbon increased downstream in the pre-monsoon season due to an increasing contribution of organic matter derived from seasonal permafrost thaw while it fluctuated in the monsoon season induced by sporadic precipitation. These results indicate a high sensitivity of riverine carbon in alpine headwater catchments to local hydrological events.
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Short summary
Soil organic matter stability depends on future temperature and precipitation scenarios. We used radiocarbon (14C) data and model predictions to understand how the transit time of carbon varies under environmental change in grasslands and peatlands. Soil moisture affected the Δ14C of peatlands, while temperature did not have any influence. Our models show the correspondence between Δ14C and transit time and could allow understanding future interactions between terrestrial and atmospheric carbon
Soil organic matter stability depends on future temperature and precipitation scenarios. We used...
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