Permafrost thaw is a major potential feedback source to climate change as it can drive the increased release of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). This carbon release from the decomposition of thawing soil organic material can be mitigated by increased net primary productivity (NPP) caused by warming, increasing atmospheric CO2, and plant community transition. However, the net effect on C storage also depends on how these plant community changes alter plant litter quantity, quality, and decomposition rates. Predicting decomposition rates based on litter quality remains challenging, but a promising new way forward is to incorporate measures of the energetic favorability to soil microbes of plant biomass decomposition. We asked how the variation in one such measure, the nominal oxidation state of carbon (NOSC), interacts with changing quantities of plant material inputs to influence the net C balance of a thawing permafrost peatland. We found: (1) Plant productivity (NPP) increased post‐thaw, but instead of contributing to increased standing biomass, it increased plant biomass turnover via increased litter inputs to soil; (2) Plant litter thermodynamic favorability (NOSC) and decomposition rate both increased post‐thaw, despite limited changes in bulk C:N ratios; (3) these increases caused the higher NPP to cycle more rapidly through both plants and soil, contributing to higher CO2and CH4 fluxes from decomposition. Thus, the increased C‐storage expected from higher productivity was limited and the high global warming potential of CH4contributed a net positive warming effect. Although post‐thaw peatlands are currently C sinks due to high NPP offsetting high CO2release, this status is very sensitive to the plant community's litter input rate and quality. Integration of novel bioavailability metrics based on litter chemistry, including NOSC, into studies of ecosystem dynamics, is needed to improve the understanding of controls on arctic C stocks under continued ecosystem transition.
The biotic and abiotic controls on major shifts in atmospheric oxygen and the persistence of low-oxygen periods over a majority of Earth’s history remain under debate. Explanations of Earth’s stepwise pattern of oxygenation have mostly neglected the effect of changing diel illumination dynamics linked to daylength, which has increased through geological time due to Earth’s rotational deceleration caused by tidal friction. Here we used microsensor measurements and dynamic modelling of interfacial solute fluxes in cyanobacterial mats to investigate the effect of changing daylength on Precambrian benthic ecosystems. Simulated increases in daylength across Earth’s historical range boosted the diel benthic oxygen export, even when the gross photosynthetic production remained constant. This fundamental relationship between net productivity and daylength emerges from the interaction of diffusive mass transfer and diel illumination dynamics, and is amplified by metabolic regulation and microbial behaviour. We found that the resultant daylength-driven surplus organic carbon burial could have shaped the increase in atmospheric oxygen that occurred during the Great and Neoproterozoic Oxidation Events. Our suggested mechanism, which links the coinciding increases in daylength and atmospheric oxygen via enhanced net productivity, reveals a possible contribution of planetary mechanics to the evolution of Earth’s biology and geochemistry.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10283204
- Publisher / Repository:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Geoscience
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1752-0894
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 564-570
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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