Soil carbon storage capacity of drylands under altered fire regimes

Adam F. A. Pellegrini (), Peter B. Reich, Sarah E. Hobbie, Corli Coetsee, Benjamin Wigley, Edmund February, Katerina Georgiou, Cesar Terrer, E. N. J. Brookshire, Anders Ahlström, Lars Nieradzik, Stephen Sitch, Joe R. Melton, Matthew Forrest, Fang Li, Stijn Hantson, Chantelle Burton, Chao Yue, Philippe Ciais and Robert B. Jackson
Additional contact information
Adam F. A. Pellegrini: University of Cambridge
Peter B. Reich: University of Michigan
Sarah E. Hobbie: University of Minnesota
Corli Coetsee: Scientific Services, South African National Parks, Kruger National Park
Benjamin Wigley: Scientific Services, South African National Parks, Kruger National Park
Edmund February: University of Cape Town
Katerina Georgiou: Lawrence Livermore National Lab
Cesar Terrer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E. N. J. Brookshire: Montana State University
Anders Ahlström: Lund University
Lars Nieradzik: Lund University
Stephen Sitch: University of Exeter
Joe R. Melton: Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Matthew Forrest: Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Institute (BiK-F)
Fang Li: International Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Stijn Hantson: Universidad del Rosario
Chantelle Burton: Met Office Hadley Centre
Chao Yue: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Northwest A&F University
Philippe Ciais: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS- UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Robert B. Jackson: Stanford University

Nature Climate Change, 2023, vol. 13, issue 10, 1089-1094

Abstract: Abstract The determinants of fire-driven changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) across broad environmental gradients remains unclear, especially in global drylands. Here we combined datasets and field sampling of fire-manipulation experiments to evaluate where and why fire changes SOC and compared our statistical model to simulations from ecosystem models. Drier ecosystems experienced larger relative changes in SOC than humid ecosystems—in some cases exceeding losses from plant biomass pools—primarily explained by high fire-driven declines in tree biomass inputs in dry ecosystems. Many ecosystem models underestimated the SOC changes in drier ecosystems. Upscaling our statistical model predicted that soils in savannah–grassland regions may have gained 0.64 PgC due to net-declines in burned area over the past approximately two decades. Consequently, ongoing declines in fire frequencies have probably created an extensive carbon sink in the soils of global drylands that may have been underestimated by ecosystem models.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01800-7

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