Warming threat to tropical forests risks release of carbon from soil


Date:
August 12, 2020
Source:
University of Edinburgh
Summary:
Billions of tons of carbon dioxide risk being lost into the
atmosphere due to tropical forest soils being significantly more
sensitive to climate change than previously thought.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide risk being lost into the atmosphere
due to tropical forest soils being significantly more sensitive to
climate change than previously thought.


========================================================================== Carbon emissions from soils in tropical forests -- which store one quarter
of the world's soil carbon -- could increase dramatically if temperatures continue to rise in line with current predictions, researchers say.

A new experiment conducted in Panama suggests these harmful emissions
of soil carbon could rise by 55 per cent if the climate warms by four
degrees Celsius.

Carbon dioxide is released naturally by soils through decomposition and
plant root activity. However, the release of so much extra carbon dioxide
-- which the study found was coming from increased decomposition of soil organic matter -- could trigger further global warming.

Previous research has shown that rising temperatures threaten to release
carbon locked away in cooler or frozen soils -- such as in the Arctic
tundra. Until now, tropical soils were thought to be less sensitive to
the effects of climate warming.

A team led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh conducted a
large- scale experiment in a tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island
in the Panama Canal.

They built heating devices and buried them one metre into the forest
soil. Over a two-year period the equipment -- fitted with heating cables
and a thermostat -- kept the experimental areas four degrees warmer than
the surrounding soil.

The findings show that as much as an extra eight tonnes of soil carbon
could be released as carbon dioxide from every hectare of tropical forest
each year at the higher temperatures.

Researchers expect the rate of emissions will eventually decline in the experimentally warmed soils, but they do not yet know how long this will
take, or the long-term impact of soil warming on climate change.

They will continue the experiment -- known as the Soil Warming Experiment
in Lowland Tropical Rainforest, or SWELTR -- to better understand how
tropical forests respond to a warming world.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Edinburgh. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Andrew T. Nottingham, Patrick Meir, Esther Velasquez, Benjamin
L. Turner.

Soil carbon loss by experimental warming in a tropical
forest. Nature, 2020; 584 (7820): 234 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2566-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200812144102.htm

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