Tibetan permafrost largely formed during the late Pleistocene glacial period and shrank in the Holocene Thermal Maximum period. Quantifying the impacts of paleoclimatic extremes on soil carbon stock can shed light on the vulnerability of permafrost carbon in the future. Here, we synthesize data from 1114 sites across the Tibetan permafrost region to report that paleoclimate is more important than modern climate in shaping current permafrost carbon distribution, and its importance increases with soil depth, mainly through forming the soil's physiochemical properties. We derive a new estimate of modern soil carbon stock to 3 m depth by including the paleoclimate effects, and find that the stock (36.6(-2.4)(+2.3)PgC) is triple that predicted by ecosystem models (11.5 +/- 4.2 s.e.m PgC), which use pre-industrial climate to initialize the soil carbon pool. The discrepancy highlights the urgent need to incorporate paleoclimate information into model initialization for simulating permafrost soil carbon stocks.
1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Key Lab Alpine Ecol, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, CAS Ctr Excellence Tibetan Plateau Earth Sci, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 3.Lanzhou Univ, Sch Life Sci, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, Peoples R China 4.Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Sino French Inst Earth Syst Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China 5.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 6.Univ Aberdeen, Sch Biol Sci, Inst Biol & Environm Sci, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, Scotland 7.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Soil Sci, State Key Lab Soil & Sustainable Agr, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, Peoples R China 8.Peking Univ, Shenzhen Grad Sch, Shenzhen Key Lab Circular Econ, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China 9.Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Ecoenvironm & Resources, State Key Lab Cryosphere Sci, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, Peoples R China 10.Chongqing Technol & Business Univ, Sch Tourism & Land Resources, Chongqing 400067, Peoples R China 11.Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China 12.Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Plateau Biol, Key Lab Adaptat & Evolut Plateau Biota, Xining 810008, Qinghai, Peoples R China 13.Oak Ridge Natl Lab, Climate Change Sci Inst, Environm Sci Div, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 USA 14.McMaster Univ, Sch Geog & Earth Sci, Hamilton, ON, Canada 15.McMaster Univ, McMaster Ctr Climate Change, Hamilton, ON, Canada 16.Auburn Univ, Sch Forestry & Wildlife Sci, Int Ctr Climate & Global Change Res, Auburn, AL 36849 USA 17.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Bot, State Key Lab Vegetat & Environm Change, Beijing 100093, Peoples R China 18.Univ Maryland, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, College Pk, MD 20742 USA 19.Univ Maryland, Earth Syst Sci Interdisciplinary Ctr, College Pk, MD 20742 USA 20.Chinese Acad Sci, Northwest Inst Ecoenvironm & Resources NIEER, State Key Lab Cryospher Sci, Cryosphere Res Stn Qinghai Xizang Plateau, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, Peoples R China
Recommended Citation:
Ding, Jinzhi,Wang, Tao,Piao, Shilong,et al. The paleoclimatic footprint in the soil carbon stock of the Tibetan permafrost region[J]. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS,2019-01-01,10