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

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Title: Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming
Authors: Gallego-Sala, A
Charman, D
Brewer, S
Page, S
Prentice, IC
Friedlingstein, P
Moreton, S
Amesbury, M
Beilman, D
Bjorck, S
Blyakharchuk, T
Bochicchio, C
Booth, R
Bunbury, J
Camill, P
Carless, D
Chimner, R
Clifford, M
Cressey, E
Courtney-Mustaphi, C
De Vleeschouwer, F
De Jong, R
Fialkiewicz-Koziel, B
Finkelstein, S
Garneau, M
Githumbi, E
Hribjlan, J
Hlmquist, J
Hughes, P
Jones, C
Jones, M
Karofeld, E
Klein, E
Kokfelt, U
Korhola, A
Lacourse, T
Le Roux, G
Lamentowicz, M
Large, D
Lavoie, M
Loisel, J
Mackay, H
MacDonald, G
Makila, M
Magnan, G
Marchant, R
Marcisz, K
Martinez Cortizas, A
Massa, C
Mathijssen, P
Mauquoy, D
Mighall, T
Mitchell, F
Moss, P
Nichols, J
Oksanen, P
Orme, L
Packalen, M
Robinson, S
Roland, T
Sanderson, N
Sannel, AB
Silva-Sanchez, N
Steinberg, N
Swindles, G
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
Item Type: Journal Article
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.
Issue Date: 10-Sep-2018
Date of Acceptance: 7-Aug-2018
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/63439
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0271-1
ISSN: 1758-678X
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Start Page: 907
End Page: 913
Journal / Book Title: Nature Climate Change
Volume: 8
Copyright Statement: © 2018 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.
Sponsor/Funder: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
AXA Research Fund
Funder's Grant Number: NE/I013776/1
AXA Chair Programme in Biosphere and Climate Impacts
Publication Status: Published
Appears in Collections:Department of Life Sciences
Faculty of Natural Sciences