Exploring the impact of climate change on soil carbon storage in montane meadows

Abstract

The excess of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere urgently calls for a deeper understanding of existing natural mechanisms for carbon sequestration. Montane meadows act as a critical natural carbon sink, often having the capacity to store much more carbon in their soils than surrounding ecosystems. However, many factors associated with climate change can impact soil carbon storage processes, converting carbon sinks to carbon sources. This can be especially problematic in montane meadows because of their relatively high soil carbon content. This study uses experimental treatments to ask how soil carbon storage may be impacted by three factors associated with climate change: warming, shifts in plant community composition, and early snowmelt. I investigated these questions by measuring soil organic carbon (SOC), and by taking soil temperature and moisture data to understand the mediating influence of these factors on soil carbon storage. I found that although none of the treatments affected total SOC, warming and changes in plant community composition shifted the distribution of SOC along the soil horizon. SOC seemed to shift to shallower soil under these ecologically relevant treatments, which is worrying because carbon tends to be less stable in shallow soils compared to deep soils. Climate change may therefore be destabilizing carbon stores in a critical carbon sink.

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