Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming

Frida Keuper; Birgit Wild; Matti Kummu; Christian Beer; Gesche Blume-Werry; Sébastien Fontaine; Konstantin Gavazov; Norman Gentsch; Georg Guggenberger; Gustaf Hugelius; Mika Jalava; Charles Koven; Eveline J. Krab; Peter Kuhry; Sylvain Monteux; Andreas Richter; Tanvir Shahzad; James T. Weedon; Ellen Dorrepaal

doi:10.1038/s41561-020-0607-0

Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming

Frida Keuper^*, Birgit Wild, Matti Kummu, Christian Beer, Gesche Blume-Werry, Sébastien Fontaine, Konstantin Gavazov, Norman Gentsch, Georg Guggenberger, Gustaf Hugelius, Mika Jalava, Charles Koven, Eveline J. Krab, Peter Kuhry, Sylvain Monteux, Andreas Richter, Tanvir Shahzad, James T. Weedon, Ellen Dorrepaal

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

As global temperatures continue to rise, a key uncertainty of climate projections is the microbial decomposition of vast organic carbon stocks in thawing permafrost soils. Decomposition rates can accelerate up to fourfold in the presence of plant roots, and this mechanism—termed the rhizosphere priming effect—may be especially relevant to thawing permafrost soils as rising temperatures also stimulate plant productivity in the Arctic. However, priming is currently not explicitly included in any model projections of future carbon losses from the permafrost area. Here, we combine high-resolution spatial and depth-resolved datasets of key plant and permafrost properties with empirical relationships of priming effects from living plants on microbial respiration. We show that rhizosphere priming amplifies overall soil respiration in permafrost-affected ecosystems by ~12%, which translates to a priming-induced absolute loss of ~40 Pg soil carbon from the northern permafrost area by 2100. Our findings highlight the need to include fine-scale ecological interactions in order to accurately predict large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest even tighter restrictions on the estimated 200 Pg anthropogenic carbon emission budget to keep global warming below 1.5 °C.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	560-565
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Geoscience
Volume	13
Issue number	8
Early online date	20 Jul 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0607-0
Publication status	Published - Aug 2020

Funding

We thank P. Thornton, F. Dijkstra, Y. Carrillo and R. E. Hewitt for providing additional information on published data. Figure 1a–c is courtesy of R. Miedema (IN Produktie, Amsterdam). This study was supported by funding from: the Swedish Research Council (VR) (grant number 621-2011-5444), Formas (grant number 214-2011-788) and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant number KAW 2012.0152) (all awarded to E.D.); Academy of Finland-funded projects SCART (grant number 267463) and WASCO (grant number 305471), Emil Aaltonen Foundation-funded project ‘eat-less-water’, the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement number 819202), and Maa-ja vesitekniikan tuki ry (all awarded to M.K.); the JPI Climate Project COUP-Austria (BMWFW-6.020/0008) (awarded to A.R.); two projects funded by the Swedish Research Council, the EU JPI Climate COUP project (E0689701) and the Project INCA (E0641701)–Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions cofund (600398) (awarded to G.H.); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BE 6485/1-1) (to C.B.); and the US DOE BER RGMA programme through the RUBISCO SFA and ECRP projects (to C.K.).

Funders	Funder number
Academy of Finland-funded
Emil Aaltonen Foundation-funded
WASCO
U.S. Department of Energy	ECRP
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	819202, BMWFW-6.020/0008
European Commission	E0689701
European Research Council
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	BE 6485/1-1
Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas
Academy of Finland	305471, 267463
Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft
Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse	KAW 2012.0152
Vetenskapsrådet	E0641701, 214-2011-788, 621-2011-5444
Emil Aaltosen Säätiö
Institut National Du Cancer	600398

UN SDGs

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Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere primingFinal published version, 8.85 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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Keuper, F., Wild, B., Kummu, M., Beer, C., Blume-Werry, G., Fontaine, S., Gavazov, K., Gentsch, N., Guggenberger, G., Hugelius, G., Jalava, M., Koven, C., Krab, E. J., Kuhry, P., Monteux, S., Richter, A., Shahzad, T., Weedon, J. T., & Dorrepaal, E. (2020). Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming. Nature Geoscience, 13(8), 560-565. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0607-0

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abstract = "As global temperatures continue to rise, a key uncertainty of climate projections is the microbial decomposition of vast organic carbon stocks in thawing permafrost soils. Decomposition rates can accelerate up to fourfold in the presence of plant roots, and this mechanism—termed the rhizosphere priming effect—may be especially relevant to thawing permafrost soils as rising temperatures also stimulate plant productivity in the Arctic. However, priming is currently not explicitly included in any model projections of future carbon losses from the permafrost area. Here, we combine high-resolution spatial and depth-resolved datasets of key plant and permafrost properties with empirical relationships of priming effects from living plants on microbial respiration. We show that rhizosphere priming amplifies overall soil respiration in permafrost-affected ecosystems by ~12%, which translates to a priming-induced absolute loss of ~40 Pg soil carbon from the northern permafrost area by 2100. Our findings highlight the need to include fine-scale ecological interactions in order to accurately predict large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest even tighter restrictions on the estimated 200 Pg anthropogenic carbon emission budget to keep global warming below 1.5 °C.",

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Keuper, F, Wild, B, Kummu, M, Beer, C, Blume-Werry, G, Fontaine, S, Gavazov, K, Gentsch, N, Guggenberger, G, Hugelius, G, Jalava, M, Koven, C, Krab, EJ, Kuhry, P, Monteux, S, Richter, A, Shahzad, T, Weedon, JT & Dorrepaal, E 2020, 'Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming', Nature Geoscience, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 560-565. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0607-0

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AU - Kummu, Matti

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AU - Blume-Werry, Gesche

AU - Fontaine, Sébastien

AU - Gavazov, Konstantin

AU - Gentsch, Norman

AU - Guggenberger, Georg

AU - Hugelius, Gustaf

AU - Jalava, Mika

AU - Koven, Charles

AU - Krab, Eveline J.

AU - Kuhry, Peter

AU - Monteux, Sylvain

AU - Richter, Andreas

AU - Shahzad, Tanvir

AU - Weedon, James T.

AU - Dorrepaal, Ellen

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N2 - As global temperatures continue to rise, a key uncertainty of climate projections is the microbial decomposition of vast organic carbon stocks in thawing permafrost soils. Decomposition rates can accelerate up to fourfold in the presence of plant roots, and this mechanism—termed the rhizosphere priming effect—may be especially relevant to thawing permafrost soils as rising temperatures also stimulate plant productivity in the Arctic. However, priming is currently not explicitly included in any model projections of future carbon losses from the permafrost area. Here, we combine high-resolution spatial and depth-resolved datasets of key plant and permafrost properties with empirical relationships of priming effects from living plants on microbial respiration. We show that rhizosphere priming amplifies overall soil respiration in permafrost-affected ecosystems by ~12%, which translates to a priming-induced absolute loss of ~40 Pg soil carbon from the northern permafrost area by 2100. Our findings highlight the need to include fine-scale ecological interactions in order to accurately predict large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest even tighter restrictions on the estimated 200 Pg anthropogenic carbon emission budget to keep global warming below 1.5 °C.

AB - As global temperatures continue to rise, a key uncertainty of climate projections is the microbial decomposition of vast organic carbon stocks in thawing permafrost soils. Decomposition rates can accelerate up to fourfold in the presence of plant roots, and this mechanism—termed the rhizosphere priming effect—may be especially relevant to thawing permafrost soils as rising temperatures also stimulate plant productivity in the Arctic. However, priming is currently not explicitly included in any model projections of future carbon losses from the permafrost area. Here, we combine high-resolution spatial and depth-resolved datasets of key plant and permafrost properties with empirical relationships of priming effects from living plants on microbial respiration. We show that rhizosphere priming amplifies overall soil respiration in permafrost-affected ecosystems by ~12%, which translates to a priming-induced absolute loss of ~40 Pg soil carbon from the northern permafrost area by 2100. Our findings highlight the need to include fine-scale ecological interactions in order to accurately predict large-scale greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest even tighter restrictions on the estimated 200 Pg anthropogenic carbon emission budget to keep global warming below 1.5 °C.

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Carbon loss from northern circumpolar permafrost soils amplified by rhizosphere priming

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