USGS · 70268350
Vulnerability of mineral-associated soil organic carbon to climate across global drylands
Abstract
Mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) constitutes a major fraction of global soil carbon and is assumed less sensitive to climate than particulate organic carbon (POC) due to protection by minerals. Despite its importance for long-term carbon storage, the response of MAOC to changing climates in drylands, which cover more than 40% of the global land area, remains unexplored. Here we assess topsoil organic carbon fractions across global drylands using a standardized field survey in 326 plots from 25 countries and 6 continents. We find that soil biogeochemistry explained the majority of variation in both MAOC and POC. Both carbon fractions decreased with increases in mean annual temperature and reductions in precipitation, with MAOC responding similarly to POC. Therefore, our results suggest that ongoing climate warming and aridification may result in unforeseen carbon losses across global drylands, and that the protective role of minerals may not dampen these effects.
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Díaz-Martínez Paloma, Fernando T. Maestre, Eduardo Moreno-Jimenez, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, David J. Eldridge, Hugo Saiz, Nicolas Gross, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Beatriz Gozalo, Victoria Ochoa, Emilio Guirado, Miguel García-Gómez, Enrique Valencia, Sergio Asensio, Miguel Berdugo, Jaime Martinez-Valderrama, Betty J. Mendoza, Juan C. García-Gil, Claudio Zaccone, Marco Panettieri, Pablo García-Palacios, Wei Fan, Iria Benavente-Ferraces, Ana Rey, Nico Eisenhauer, Simone Cesarz, Mehdi Abedi, Rodrigo J. Ahumada, Julio M. Alcantara, Fateh Amghar, Valeria Aramayo, Antonio I. Arroyo, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Farah Ben Salem, Niels Blaum, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Matthew A. Bowker, Donaldo Bran, Cristina Branquinho, Chongfeng Bu, Yonatan Cáceres, Rafaella Canessa, Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy, Ignacio Castro, Patricio Castro-Quezada, Roukaya Chibani, Abel A. Conceição, Courtney M. Currier, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, Balazs Deak, Christopher R. Dickman, David A. Donoso, Andrew J. Dougill, Jorge Duran, Hamid Ejtehadi, Carlos I. Espinosa, Alex Fajardo, Mohammad Farzam, Daniela Ferrante, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Juan J. Gaitan, Elizabeth Gusman Montalván, Rosa M. Hernández-Hernández, Andreas von Hessberg, Norbert Holzel, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Frederic M. Hughes, Oswaldo Jadan-Maza, Katja Geissler, Anke Jentsch, Mengchen Ju, Kudzai F. Kaseke, Liana Kindermann, Jessica E. Koopman, Peter C. le Roux, Pierre Liancourt, Anja Linstadter, Jushan Liu, Michelle A. Louw, Gillian Maggs-Kolling, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Oumarou Malam Issa, Eugene Marais, Pierre Margerie, Antonio J. Mazaneda, Mitchel P. McClaran, Joao Vitor S. Messeder, Juan P. Mora, Gerardo Moreno, Seth M. Munson, Alice Nunes, Gabriel Oliva, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Brooke Osborne, Guadalupe Peter, Yolanda Pueyo, R. Emiliano Quiroga, Sasha C. Reed, Victor M. Reyes, Alexandra Rodriguez. 2024-07-30. Vulnerability of mineral-associated soil organic carbon to climate across global drylands. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02087-y
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