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2016 Fisher et al Veg-soil influence on boreal ALT GCB.pdf (585.18 kB)

The influence of vegetation and soil characteristics on active-layer thickness of permafrost soils in boreal forest

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posted on 2023-06-09, 02:03 authored by James P Fisher, Cristian Estop-Aragones, Aaron Thierry, Dan J Charman, Stephen A Wolfe, Iain P Hartley, Julian MurtonJulian Murton, Mathew Williams, Gareth K Phoenix
Carbon release from thawing permafrost soils could significantly exacerbate global warming as the active-layer deepens, exposing more carbon to decay. Plant community and soil properties provide a major control on this by influencing the maximum depth of thaw each summer (active-layer thickness; ALT), but a quantitative understanding of the relative importance of plant and soil characteristics, and their interactions in determine ALTs, is currently lacking. To address this, we undertook an extensive survey of multiple vegetation and edaphic characteristics and ALTs across multiple plots in four field sites within boreal forest in the discontinuous permafrost zone (NWT, Canada). Our sites included mature black spruce, burned black spruce and paper birch, allowing us to determine vegetation and edaphic drivers that emerge as the most important and broadly applicable across these key vegetation and disturbance gradients, as well as providing insight into site-specific differences. Across sites, the most important vegetation characteristics limiting thaw (shallower ALTs) were tree leaf area index (LAI), moss layer thickness and understory LAI in that order. Thicker soil organic layers also reduced ALTs, though were less influential than moss thickness. Surface moisture (0–6 cm) promoted increased ALTs, whereas deeper soil moisture (11–16 cm) acted to modify the impact of the vegetation, in particular increasing the importance of understory or tree canopy shading in reducing thaw. These direct and indirect effects of moisture indicate that future changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration may have large influences on ALTs. Our work also suggests that forest fires cause greater ALTs by simultaneously decreasing multiple ecosystem characteristics which otherwise protect permafrost. Given that vegetation and edaphic characteristics have such clear and large influences on ALTs, our data provide a key benchmark against which to evaluate process models used to predict future impacts of climate warming on permafrost degradation and subsequent feedback to climate.

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Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Global Change Biology

ISSN

1354-1013

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing

Issue

9

Volume

22

Page range

3127-3140

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-07-06

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-07-06

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-07-06

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