Emergent Climatic Controls on Soil Carbon Turnover and Its Variability in Warm Climates Academic Article

abstract

• AbstractClimate plays a critical role in altering soil carbon (C) turnover and longterm soil C storage by regulating water availability and temperature, and in turn biological activity. However, a systematic analysis of how key climatic factors shape the global patterns of soil C turnover is still lacking. Using global observationbased data sets and a transit time theory, here we show thatexcluding croplands and cold regionssoil C turnover time (TO) and its variability are strongly related to ecosystem aridity through a power law scaling. According to such a relation, soil C turnover is faster but also more variable in wetter regions, suggesting more complex C cycling processes. The observed scaling of TO and its coefficient of variation with aridity underlines the fundamental controls of climate on soil C turnover and may help reconcile soil C models with empirical observations for improved projection of soil C dynamics under climate change.

authors

• Calabrese, Salvatore

published proceedings

• GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS

altmetric score

• 11.25

author list (cited authors)

• Huang, H., Wu, J., & Calabrese, S.

citation count

• 0

complete list of authors

• Huang, Heng||Wu, Jin||Calabrese, Salvatore

publication date

• November 2023

publisher

• American Geophysical Union (AGU)  Publisher

published in

• Geophysical Research Letters  Journal

keywords

• Aridity Index
• Carbon Balance
• Climate Change
• Power Law
• Soil Carbon Turnover
• Soil Heterogeneity

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1029/2023GL105291

volume

• 50

issue

• 22

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023gl105291