Journal
NATURE
Volume 404, Issue 6780, Pages 858-861Publisher
MACMILLAN MAGAZINES LTD
DOI: 10.1038/35009076
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It has been suggested that increases in temperature can accelerate the decomposition of organic carbon contained in forest mineral soil (C-s), and, therefore, that global warming should increase the release of soil organic carbon to the atmosphere(1-6). These predictions assume, however, that decay constants can be accurately derived from short-term laboratory incubations of soil or that in situ incubations of fresh litter accurately represent the temperature sensitivity of C-s decomposition. But our limited understanding of the biophysical factors that control C-s decomposition rates, and observations of only minor increases in C-s decomposition rate with temperature in longer-term forest soil heating experiments(7-12) and in latitudinal comparisons of C-s decomposition rates(13-15) bring these predictions into question. Here we have compiled C-s decomposition data from 82 sites on five continents. We found that C-s decomposition rates were remarkably constant across a global-scale gradient in mean annual temperature. These data suggest that C-s decomposition rates for forest soils are not controlled by temperature limitations to microbial activity, and that increased temperature alone will not stimulate the decomposition of forest-derived carbon in mineral soil.
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