Finzi, Adrien: Boston University (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2014 - 2017
NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Cycle Science
Funded by DOE
Abstract:
High latitude peatlands represent a particularly significant terrestrial carbon sink for atmospheric CO2, containing nearly half of the soil carbon pool on Earth. As result of
anoxic conditions, however, peatlands are simultaneously a major source of CH4 to the
atmosphere. The greatest rates of warming are occurring at high latitudes and warming is
predicted to accelerate the loss of the C stored in peat as a result of faster rates of
decomposition. The magnitude of these effects remains uncertain, as does the balance
between C loss as CO2 and CH4. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with ~25 times
the warming potential of CO2, thus it is critical to develop a robust understanding of the
patterns and processes regulating climate-change associated changes in C cycling in
northern peatlands. The overarching objective of this research is to characterize the
response of CO2 and CH4 emissions from a boreal peatland to experimental warming and
atmospheric CO2 enrichment (eCO2). This research will be conducted at the Spruce and
Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change (herein SPRUCE)
experimental facility, which is located in the USDA’s Marcell Experimental Forest in
northern Minnesota. By focusing on peatland responses to multiple levels of warming at
ambient or eCO2 and our deployment of state-of-the-art technology to make continuous
measurements of CO2 and CH4 emissions and isotopic signatures from the peat surface,
the proposed research will enable the development of robust models relating trace gas
emissions to changes in temperature and moisture regimes in peatlands and changes in C
cycling imposed by potential increases in plant productivity at eCO2.
By collecting first-ever data on CO2 and CH4 fluxes from intact peatlands exposed to
experimental warming and eCO2, this research will provide important data constraints on
model structure and parameter estimation in a high-latitude boreal peatland. The
proposed research therefore directly addresses NASA, DOE and USDA interests in
understanding the responses and feedbacks of carbon rich, high latitude ecosystems to
climate warming and atmospheric change. The proposal’s focus on belowground
processes is fundamental to this understanding. The proposed data collection and
collaboration with modeling groups will enable the refinement of ESMs, thus
contributing to research that will aid in projecting the future state of the Earth’s climate
system mediated by changes in land-surface processes. This research leverages existing
federal investments in high-latitude, multifactor global change experiments, a key activity
of the DOE’s Climate Research Roadmap Workshop Report. As also generally
highlighted in the NASA ROSES call and specifically in the DOE Report, this research
contributes directly to the design and initiation of “new process studies focused on soil
organic matter dynamics and plant-microbe interactions,” as well as the implementation
“for ESMs a new generation of soil organic matter submodels based on synthesis efforts
and new process studies.”
Publications:
Gill, A. L., Finzi, A. C. 2016. Belowground carbon flux links biogeochemical cycles and resource-use efficiency at the global scale. Ecology Letters. 19(12), 1419-1428. DOI: 10.1111/ele.12690
Gill, A. L., Giasson, M., Yu, R., Finzi, A. C. 2017. Deep peat warming increases surface methane and carbon dioxide emissions in a black spruce-dominated ombrotrophic bog. Global Change Biology. 23(12), 5398-5411. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13806
Zalman, C., Keller, J. K., Tfaily, M., Kolton, M., Pfeifer-Meister, L., Wilson, R. M., Lin, X., Chanton, J., Kostka, J. E., Gill, A., Finzi, A., Hopple, A. M., Bohannan, B. J. M., Bridgham, S. D. 2018. Small differences in ombrotrophy control regional-scale variation in methane cycling among Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. Biogeochemistry. 139(2), 155-177. DOI: 10.1007/s10533-018-0460-z
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
