Temperature sensitivity of permafrost carbon release mediated by mineral and microbial properties

Shuqi Qin; Dan Kou; Chao Mao; Yongliang Chen; Leiyi Chen; Yuanhe Yang

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe3596

Temperature sensitivity of permafrost carbon release mediated by mineral and microbial properties

Sci Adv. 2021 Aug 6;7(32):eabe3596. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe3596. Print 2021 Aug.

Authors

Shuqi Qin^{1

2}, Dan Kou^{1

3}, Chao Mao^{1

2}, Yongliang Chen¹, Leiyi Chen¹, Yuanhe Yang^{4

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Biogeochemistry Research Group, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70210, Finland.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China. yhyang@ibcas.ac.cn.

Abstract

Temperature sensitivity (Q ₁₀) of permafrost carbon (C) release upon thaw is a vital parameter for projecting permafrost C dynamics under climate warming. However, it remains unclear how mineral protection interacts with microbial properties and intrinsic recalcitrance to affect permafrost C fate. Here, we sampled permafrost soils across a 1000-km transect on the Tibetan Plateau and conducted two laboratory incubations over 400- and 28-day durations to explore patterns and drivers of permafrost C release and its temperature response after thaw. We find that mineral protection and microbial properties are two types of crucial predictors of permafrost C dynamics upon thaw. Both high C release and Q ₁₀ are associated with weak organo-mineral associations but high microbial abundances and activities, whereas high microbial diversity corresponds to low Q ₁₀ The attenuating effects of mineral protection and the dual roles of microbial properties would make the permafrost C-climate feedback more complex than previously thought.

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