Carbon and Nitrogen cycling in a permafrost soil profile

Abstract:

In high latitude ecosystems, active layer soils thaw during the growing season and are situated on top of perennially frozen soils (permafrost). Permafrost affected soil profiles currently store a globally important pool of carbon (1330-1580 PgC) due to cold temperatures constraining the decomposition of soil organic matter. With global warming, however, seasonal thaw is expected to increase in speed and extend to deeper portions of the soil profile. As permafrost soils become part of the active layer, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) previously stored in soil organic matter will be released via decomposition. In this experiment, the dynamic relationship between N mineralization, C mineralization, and C quality was investigated in moist acidic tundra soils. Soils from the active layer surface down through the permafrost (80cm) were incubated aerobically at 15°C for 225 days. Carbon dioxide fluxes were fit with a two pool exponential decay model so that the size and turnover of both the quickly decomposing C pool (C_fast) and the slowly decomposing C pool (C_slow) could be assessed. Soil extractions with 2M KCl were performed at six time points throughout the incubation so that dissolve inorganic N (DIN) and dissolved organic C (DOC) could be measured. DIN was readily extractable from deep permafrost soils throughout the incubation (0.05 mgN/g dry soil) but in active layer soils DIN was only produced after C_fast had been depleted. In contrast, active layer soils had high levels of DOC (0.65 mgC/g dry soil) throughout the incubation but in permafrost soils, DOC became depleted as C_fast reduced in size. The strong contrasts between the C and N cycling in active layer soils versus permafrost soils suggest that the deeper thaw will dramatically increase N availability in these soil profiles. Plants and soil microbes in the tundra are currently N limited so our findings imply that deepening thaw will 1) provide N necessary for increased plant growth and 2) stimulate losses of active layer soil C.