Soil moisture controls the partitioning of carbon stocks across a managed boreal forest landscape

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 14909 - 12
• Main Authors: Larson, Johannes, Wallerman, Jörgen, Peichl, Matthias, Laudon, Hjalmar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.09.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/158/1145; 631/158/2449; 631/158/2454; 704/47/4113; Biomass; Boreal forests; Carbon; Climate change; Estimates; Fjärranalysteknik; Forest Science; Forests; Global warming; Humanities and Social Sciences; Landscape; Markvetenskap; Moisture control; multidisciplinary; Organic soils; Peatlands; Remote Sensing; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Skogsvetenskap; Soil moisture; Soil Science; Taiga; Topography; Trees; Variation; Vegetation
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42091-4

Boreal forests sequester and store vast carbon (C) pools that may be subject to significant feedback effects induced by climatic warming. The boreal landscape consists of a mosaic of forests and peatlands with wide variation in total C stocks, making it important to understand the factors controlling C pool sizes in different ecosystems. We therefore quantified the total C stocks in the organic layer, mineral soil, and tree biomass in 430 plots across a 68 km 2 boreal catchment. The organic layer held the largest C pool, accounting for 39% of the total C storage; tree and mineral C pools accounted for 38% and 23%, respectively. The size of the soil C pool was positively related to modelled soil moisture conditions, especially in the organic soil layer (R 2  = 0.50). Conversely, the tree C pool exhibited a unimodal relationship: storage was highest under intermediate wetness conditions. The magnitude and variation in the total soil C stocks observed in this work were comparable to those found at the national level in Sweden, suggesting that C accumulation in boreal landscapes is more sensitive to local variation resulting primarily from differences in soil moisture conditions than to regional differences in climate, nitrogen deposition, and parent material.