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Tropical Soils Could Dominate the Short-term Carbon Cycle Feedbacks to Increased Global Temperatures by Alan R. Townsend; Peter M. Vitousek; Elisabeth A. Holland is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

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Results of a simple model of the effects of temperature on net ecosystem production call into question the argument that the large stocks of soil carbon and greater projected warming in the boreal and tundra regions of the world will lead to rapid effiux of carbon from these biomes to the atmosphere. We show that low rates of carbon turnover in these regions and a relatively greater response of net primary production to changes in temperature may lead to carbon storage over some limited range of warming. In contrast, the high rates of soil respiration found in tropical ecosystems are highly sensitive to small changes in temperature, so that despite the less pronounced warming expected in equatorial regions, tropical soils are likely to release relatively large amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Results for high-latitude biomes are highly sensitive to parameter values used, while the net effiux of carbon from the tropics appears robust.

Who reads Tropical Soils Could Dominate the Short-term Carbon Cycle Feedbacks to Increased Global Temperatures?

Author

Alan R. Townsend; Peter M. Vitousek; Elisabeth A. Holland

Publisher

Springer; Springer-Verlag; Reidel Pub. Co.; Springer Science and Business Media LLC (ISSN 0165-0009)

Published

1992

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)