Collaborative Research: Identifying Hydroclimatic Regimes of Carbon Stability in Northern Peatlands: Holocene Data Analysis and Process-Based Modeling

北极泥炭地作为陆地碳的重要储存库存在了数千年，包括在全球气候变暖的时期。泥炭地的碳积累速率、其持续性及其在整个全新世（近10，000年）与大气交换具有辐射重要性的碳气体（如二氧化碳和甲烷）的能力对地球的全球碳收支、过去和未来的气候辐射强迫以及这些生态系统的持续稳定性具有影响。一个由美国建模者和观测者组成的团队将与来自几个北极国家的同事合作，更好地模拟负责有机碳长期封存的因素，包括泥炭地水文，植物组成，与永久冻土的相互作用以及微生物介导的缺氧作用。需要研究的叠加假设是，在相当广泛的气候和生态系统条件范围内，泥炭地水文、生产力和分解率的内部动态是这些系统过去和持续稳定的原因。将这种过去的稳定性知识应用到当代泥炭地的条件下，可以使洞察未来的气候变化是否会太快或太极端，这些系统来适应或持续下去。一个推广工作的基础上可访问的温带泥炭地网站也将开发作为一个工具，生态，碳循环和全球变化科学主题向公众传播。这项工作得到了美国国家科学基金会地球系统碳和水项目的支持，这是地球科学理事会的一个跨学科资助机会。

Arctic peatlands have existed as a significant reservoir of terrestrial carbon over many thousands of years, including during periods of much warmer global climate. Peatland carbon accumulation rates, their persistence and their ability to exchange radiatively important carbon gases such as carbon dioxide and methane with the atmosphere throughout the Holocene (~last 10,000 years) have implications for the earth's global carbon budget, past and future radiative forcing of climate and the continued stability of these ecosystems. A team of U.S. modelers and observationalists will work together with colleagues from several Arctic countries to better model the factors responsible for long term sequestration of organic carbon including peatland hydrology, vegetative composition, interaction with permafrost and the role of microbially mediated anoxia. The overlying hypothesis to be investigated is that within a reasonably broad zone of climate and ecosystem conditions, internal dynamics of peatland hydrology, productivity and decomposition rates are responsible for the past and continued stability of these systems. Applying knowledge of this past stability to contemporary peatland conditions may enable insight as to whether future climate change will be either too rapid or too extreme for these systems to adapt or persist.An outreach effort based on an accessible temperate peatland site will also be developed as a vehicle for communicating ecological, carbon cycling and global change science themes to the general public. This work is supported under the NSF Carbon and Water in the Earth System solicitation, an interdisciplinary funding opportunity from the Directorate of Geosciences.