TY - JOUR A1 - Schulz, Katharina A1 - Voigt, Karsten A1 - Beusch, Christine A1 - Almeida-Cortez, Jarcilene S. A1 - Kowarik, Ingo A1 - Walz, Ariane A1 - Cierjacks, Arne T1 - Grazing deteriorates the soil carbon stocks of Caatinga forest ecosystems in Brazil JF - Forest ecology and management N2 - Grazing by domestic ungulates can have substantial impacts on forests in arid and semi-arid regions, possibly including severe loss of carbon from the soil. Predicting net livestock impacts on soil organic carbon stocks remains challenging, however, due to the dependence on animal loads and on soil and environmental parameters. The objective of this study was to better understand grazing effects on soil organic carbon in seasonal tropical dry forests of north-eastern Brazil (Caatinga) by quantifying carbon stocks of the upper soil profile (0–5 cm depth) and greater soil depths (>5 cm depth down to bedrock) along a gradient of grazing intensity while accounting for other influencing factors such as soil texture, vegetation, landscape topography, and water availability. We analysed soil organic carbon, soil clay content, altitude above sea level, soil depth to bedrock, distance to the nearest permanent water body, species diversity of perennial plants and aboveground biomass on 45 study plots located in the vicinity of the Itaparica Reservoir, Pernambuco, Brazil. Livestock (mainly goats and cattle) are unevenly distributed in the studied ecosystem, thus grazing intensity was accounted for based on the weight of livestock droppings per square metre and classified as no or light, intermediate, or heavy grazing. The mean soil organic carbon in the area was 16.86 ± 1.28 Mg ha−1 C with approximately one-quarter found in the upper 5 cm of the soil profile (4.14 ± 0.43 Mg ha−1 C) and the remainder (12.57 ± 0.97 Mg ha−1 C) in greater soil depths (>5 cm). Heavy grazing led to significantly lower soil organic carbon stocks in the upper 5 cm, whereas no effect on soil organic carbon of the soil overall or in greater soil depths was detectable. The soil’s clay content and the altitude proved to be the most relevant factors influencing overall soil organic carbon stocks and those in greater soil depths (>5 cm). Our findings suggest that grazing causes substantial release of carbon from Brazilian dry forest soils, which should be addressed through improved grazing management via a legally compulsory rotation system. This would ultimately contribute to the conservation of a unique forest system and associated ecosystem services. KW - Carbon cycle KW - Degradation KW - Desertification KW - Livestock KW - Semi-arid KW - Soil Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.02.011 SN - 0378-1127 SN - 1872-7042 VL - 367 SP - 62 EP - 70 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nitze, Ingmar A1 - Grosse, Guido A1 - Jones, Benjamin M. A1 - Romanovsky, Vladimir E. A1 - Boike, Julia T1 - Remote sensing quantifies widespread abundance of permafrost region disturbances across the Arctic and Subarctic T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Local observations indicate that climate change and shifting disturbance regimes are causing permafrost degradation. However, the occurrence and distribution of permafrost region disturbances (PRDs) remain poorly resolved across the Arctic and Subarctic. Here we quantify the abundance and distribution of three primary PRDs using time-series analysis of 30-m resolution Landsat imagery from 1999 to 2014. Our dataset spans four continental-scale transects in North America and Eurasia, covering ~10% of the permafrost region. Lake area loss (−1.45%) dominated the study domain with enhanced losses occurring at the boundary between discontinuous and continuous permafrost regions. Fires were the most extensive PRD across boreal regions (6.59%), but in tundra regions (0.63%) limited to Alaska. Retrogressive thaw slumps were abundant but highly localized (<10−5%). Our analysis synergizes the global-scale importance of PRDs. The findings highlight the need to include PRDs in next-generation land surface models to project the permafrost carbon feedback. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 799 KW - Carbon cycle KW - Climate change KW - Cryospheric science KW - Environmental sciences Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426171 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 799 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Perkins, Anita K. A1 - Santos, Isaac R. A1 - Rose, Andrew L. A1 - Schulz, Kai G. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Eyre, Bradley D. A1 - Kelaher, Brendan P. A1 - Oakes, Joanne M. T1 - Production of dissolved carbon and alkalinity during macroalgal wrack degradation on beaches BT - a mesocosm experiment with implications for blue carbon JF - Biogeochemistry N2 - Marine macroalgae are a key primary producer in coastal ecosystems, but are often overlooked in blue carbon inventories. Large quantities of macroalgal detritus deposit on beaches, but the fate of wrack carbon (C) is little understood. If most of the wrack carbon is respired back to CO2, there would be no net carbon sequestration. However, if most of the wrack carbon is converted to bicarbonate (alkalinity) or refractory DOC, wrack deposition would represent net carbon sequestration if at least part of the metabolic products (e.g., reduced Fe and S) are permanently removed (i.e., long-term burial) and the DOC is not remineralised. To investigate the release of macroalgal C via porewater and its potential to contribute to C sequestration (blue carbon), we monitored the degradation of Ecklonia radiata in flow-through mesocosms simulating tidal flushing on sandy beaches. Over 60 days, 81% of added E. radiata organic matter (OM) decomposed. Per 1 mol of detritus C, the degradation produced 0.48 +/- 0.34 mol C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (59%) and 0.25 +/- 0.07 mol C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (31%) in porewater, and a small amount of CO2 (0.3 +/- 0.0 mol C; ca. 3%) which was emitted to the atmosphere. A significant amount of carbonate alkalinity was found in porewater, equating to 33% (0.27 +/- 0.05 mol C) of the total degraded C. The degradation occurred in two phases. In the first phase (days 0-3), 27% of the OM degraded, releasing highly reactive DOC. In the second phase (days 4-60), the labile DOC was converted to DIC. The mechanisms underlying E. radiata degradation were sulphate reduction and ammonification. It is likely that the carbonate alkalinity was primarily produced through sulphate reduction. The formation of carbonate alkalinity and semi-labile or refractory DOC from beach wrack has the potential to play an overlooked role in coastal carbon cycling and contribute to marine carbon sequestration. KW - Tidal pumping KW - Organic matter degradation KW - Carbon cycle KW - Mineralisation KW - Porewater exchange KW - Submarine groundwater discharge Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00946-4 SN - 0168-2563 SN - 1573-515X VL - 160 IS - 2 SP - 159 EP - 175 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER -