Rapid loss of complex polymers and pyrogenic carbon in subsoils under whole-soil warming

Subsoils contain more than half of soil organic carbon (SOC) and are expected to experience rapid warming in the coming decades. Yet our understanding of the stability of this vast carbon pool under global warming is uncertain. In particular, the fate of complex molecular structures (polymers) remai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature geoscience 2023-04, Vol.16 (4), p.344-348
Main Authors: Zosso, Cyrill U, Ofiti, Nicholas O E, Torn, Margaret S, Wiesenberg, Guido L B, Schmidt, Michael W I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
Biomass burning
Carbon
carbon cycle
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sinks
Climate change
Cutin
Decomposition
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Global warming
Lipids
Molecular structure
Organic carbon
Organic soils
Phenols
Plant biomass
Polymers
projection and prediction
Soil
Soils
Subsoils
Topsoil
Woody plants
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Summary:Subsoils contain more than half of soil organic carbon (SOC) and are expected to experience rapid warming in the coming decades. Yet our understanding of the stability of this vast carbon pool under global warming is uncertain. In particular, the fate of complex molecular structures (polymers) remains debated. Here we show that 4.5 years of whole-soil warming (+4 °C) resulted in less polymeric SOC (sum of specific polymers contributing to SOC) in the warmed subsoil (20-90 cm) relative to control, with no detectable change in topsoil. Warming stimulated the subsoil loss of lignin phenols (-17 ± 0%) derived from woody plant biomass, hydrolysable lipids cutin and suberin, derived from leaf and woody plant biomass (-28 ± 3%), and pyrogenic carbon (-37 ± 8%) produced during incomplete combustion. Given that these compounds have been proposed for long-term carbon sequestration, it is notable that they were rapidly lost in warmed soils. We conclude that complex polymeric carbon in subsoil is vulnerable to decomposition and propose that molecular structure alone may not protect compounds from degradation under future warming.
ISSN:1752-0894
1752-0908
DOI:10.1038/s41561-023-01142-1