Input-driven versus turnover-driven controls of simulated changes in soil carbon due to land-use change

Nyawira, S. S.; Nabel, Julia E. M. S.; Brovkin, V. und Pongratz, Julia (2017): Input-driven versus turnover-driven controls of simulated changes in soil carbon due to land-use change. In: Environmental Research Letters, Bd. 12, Nr. 8, 084015

Abstract

Historical changes in soil carbon associated with land-use change (LUC) result mainly from the changes in the quantity of litter inputs to the soil and the turnover of carbon in soils. We use a factor separation technique to assess how the input-driven and turnover-driven controls, as well as their synergies, have contributed to historical changes in soil carbon associated with LUC. We apply this approach to equilibrium simulations of present-day and pre-industrial land use performed using the dynamic global vegetation model JSBACH. Our results show that both the input-driven and turnover-driven changes generally contribute to a gain in soil carbon in afforested regions and a loss in deforested regions. However, in regions where grasslands have been converted to croplands, we find an input-driven loss that is partly offset by a turnover-driven gain, which stems from a decrease in the fire-related carbon losses. Omitting land management through crop and wood harvest substantially reduces the global losses through the input-driven changes. Our study thus suggests that the dominating control of soil carbon losses is via the input-driven changes, which are more directly accessible to human management than the turnover-driven ones.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Keywords: factor separation;input-driven;land-use change;soil carbon changes;turnover-driven
• Fakultät: Geowissenschaften > Department für Geographie > Physische Geographie und Landnutzungssysteme
• Themengebiete: 900 Geschichte und Geografie > 910 Geografie, Reisen
• ISSN: 1748-9326
• Sprache: Englisch