Strategizing a Comprehensive Laboratory Protocol to Determine the Decomposability of Soil Organic Matter in Permafrost

Abstract:

Soil organic matter decomposition depends on physical, chemical, and biological factors, such as the amount and quality of the organic matter stored, abiotic conditions (such as soil temperature and moisture), microbial community dynamics, and physical protection by soil minerals. Soils store immense amounts of carbon with 1330-1580 Pg of carbon in the permafrost region alone. Increasing temperatures in the Arctic will thaw large amounts of previously frozen organic carbon making it available for decomposition. The rate at which carbon is being released from permafrost soils is crucial for understanding future changes in permafrost carbon storage and carbon flux to the atmosphere.

The potential magnitude and form of carbon release (carbon dioxide or methane) from permafrost can be investigated using soil incubation studies. Over the past 20 years, many incubation studies have been published with soils from the permafrost zone and three recent syntheses have summarized current findings from aerobic and anaerobic incubation studies. However, the breadth of the incubation synthesis projects was hampered by incomplete meta-data and the use of different methods. Here, we provide recommendations to improve and standardize future soil incubation studies (which are not limited to permafrost soils) to make individual studies useful for inclusion in syntheses and meta-analyses, which helps to broaden their impact on our understanding of organic matter cycling. Additionally, we identify gaps in the understanding of permafrost carbon decomposability, that, when coupled with emerging knowledge from field observations and experiments, can be implemented in future studies to gain a better overview of the overall decomposability of permafrost carbon.