Citation:

Turner, D. AND R. Leemans. EQUILIBRIUM-ANALYSIS OF PROJECT CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON THE GLOBAL SOIL ORGANIC MATTER POOL. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/A-92/039 (NTIS PB92153022), 1992.

Description:

Increased rates of soil organic matter decomposition may represent a significant positive feedback to global warming. s a step towards assessing the potential magnitude of this response, an equilibrium analysis was performed in which representative carbon pools were associated with each vegetation type and the Holdridge vegetation/climate correlation system was used to compare distributions of the vegetation types under the current climate and doubled-CO2 climate scenarios from four general circulation models (GCMs). wo of the GCMs predicted a net loss of belowground carbon (55-101 Pg) because of large decreases in the areal extent of tundra and boreal ecosystems with high levels of belowground carbon storage. egetation redistribution projected under the other two GCMs would result in the accumulation of carbon (5-41 Pg) in the biosphere, however, this accumulation was driven primarily by an increase in the areal extent of tropical rain forests which is unlikely given constraints imposed by anthropogenic factors. ther considerations not treated by the equilibrium approach also support the likelihood of a transient pulse of carbon from the soil to the atmosphere.

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