Unconsidered sporadic sources of carbon dioxide emission from soils in taiga forests

• Published in: Doklady. Biological sciences Vol. 475; no. 1; pp. 165 - 168
• Main Authors: Karelin, D. V., Zamolodchikov, D. G., Isaev, A. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.07.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon dioxide; Carbon Dioxide - metabolism; Carbon sources; Climate; Climate change; Evolutionary Biology; General Biology; Global Warming; Greenhouse gases; Greenhouse Gases - metabolism; Land use; Life Sciences; Pest outbreaks; Picea - metabolism; Plant Sciences; Soil; Taiga; Taiga & tundra
• ISSN: 0012-4966; 1608-3105
• DOI: 10.1134/S0012496617040093

Long-term monitoring in the Russian taiga zone has shown that all known extreme destructive effects resulting in the weakening and death of tree stands (windfalls, pest attacks, drought events, etc.) can be sporadic, but significant sources of CO 2 soil emission. Among them are (i) a recently found effect of the multiyear CO 2 emission from soil at the bottom of deadwood of spruce trees that died due to climate warming and subsequent pest outbreaks, (ii) increased soil CO 2 emissions due to to the fall of tree trunks during massive windfalls, and (iii) pulse CO 2 emission as a result of the so-called Birch effect after drought events in the taiga zone. According to the modeling, while depending on the spatial and temporal scales of their manifestation, the impact of these sporadic effects on the regional and global soil respiration fluxes could be significant and should be taken into consideration. This is due to continuing Climate Change, and further increase of local, regional and Global human impacts on the atmospheric greenhouse gases balance, and land use, as well.