Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming

Abstract

The carbon sink potential of peatlands depends on the balance of carbon uptake by plants and microbial decomposition. The rates of both these processes will increase with warming but it remains unclear which will dominate the global peatland response. Here we examine the global relationship between peatland carbon accumulation rates during the last millennium and planetary-scale climate space. A positive relationship is found between carbon accumulation and cumulative photosynthetically active radiation during the growing season for mid- to high-latitude peatlands in both hemispheres. However, this relationship reverses at lower latitudes, suggesting that carbon accumulation is lower under the warmest climate regimes. Projections under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios indicate that the present-day global sink will increase slightly until around AD 2100 but decline thereafter. Peatlands will remain a carbon sink in the future, but their response to warming switches from a negative to a positive climate feedback (decreased carbon sink with warming) at the end of the twenty-first century.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Gallego-Sala, AV Charman, DJ Brewer, S Page, SE Prentice, IC Friedlingstein, P Moreton, S Amesbury, MJ Beilman, DW Bjorck, S Blyakharchuk, T Bochicchio, C Booth, RK Bunbury, J Camill, P Carless, D Chimner, RA Clifford, M Cressey, E Courtney-Mustaphi, C De Vleeschouwer, F De Jong, R Fialkiewicz-Koziel, B Finkelstein, SA Garneau, M Githumbi, E Hribjlan, J Holmquist, J Hughes, PDM Jones, C Jones, MC Karofeld, E Klein, ES Kokfelt, U Korhola, A Lacourse, T Le Roux, G Lamentowicz, M Large, D Lavoie, M Loisel, J Mackay, H MacDonald, GM Makila, M Magnan, G Marchant, R Marcisz, K Martinez Cortizas, A Massa, C Mathijssen, P Mauquoy, D Mighall, T Mitchell, FJG Moss, P Nichols, J Oksanen, PO Orme, L Packalen, MS Robinson, S Roland, TP Sanderson, NK Sannel, ABK Silva-Sanchez, N Steinberg, N Swindles, GT https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8039-1790 Turner, TE Uglow, J Valiranta, M Van Bellen, S Van der Linden, M Van Geel, B Wang, G Yu, Z Zaragoza-Castells, J Zhao, Y
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2018 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Nature Climate Change. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Dates:	Published: October 2018 Published (online): 10 September 2018 Accepted: 7 August 2018
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2019 14:44
Last Modified:	10 Mar 2019 01:38
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Research
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41558-018-0271-1
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:141718

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Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming

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