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

几千年来，北极泥炭地一直是陆地碳的重要储存库，包括在全球气候变暖的时期。泥炭地的碳积累速率、其持久性以及它们在整个全新世(~过去10,000年)与大气交换二氧化碳和甲烷等具有辐射重要性的碳气体的能力，对地球的全球碳收支、过去和未来气候的辐射强迫以及这些生态系统的持续稳定具有重要意义。一个由美国建模人员和观察家组成的团队将与来自几个北极国家的同事合作，更好地对导致有机碳长期固定的因素进行建模，这些因素包括泥炭地水文、植被组成、与永久冻土的相互作用以及微生物介导的缺氧的作用。要研究的最重要的假设是，在相当广泛的气候和生态系统条件范围内，泥炭地水文、生产力和分解速率的内部动态是这些系统过去和持续稳定的原因。将过去稳定性的知识应用于当代泥炭地条件，可以洞察未来气候变化是否太快或太极端，这些系统无法适应或持续。还将开发一项基于可访问的温带泥炭地的外展努力，作为向公众传播生态、碳循环和全球变化科学主题的工具。这项工作得到了美国国家科学基金会地球系统碳和水征集项目的支持，这是地球科学局提供的跨学科资助机会。

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.