TY - JOUR
T1 - Mineral element recycling in topsoil following permafrost degradation and a vegetation shift in sub-Arctic tundra
AU - Villani, Maëlle
AU - Mauclet, Elisabeth
AU - Agnan, Yannick
AU - Druel, Arsène
AU - Jasinski, Briana
AU - Taylor, Meghan
AU - Schuur, Edward A.G.
AU - Opfergelt, Sophie
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Laurence Monin, Claudine Givron, Elodie Devos, and H?l?ne Dailly from the analytical platform MOCA at UCLouvain. Justin Ledman is thanked for his valuable contribution to field logistics and sampling, and Catherine Hirst, Arthur Monhonval and Simon Malvaux are thanked for their contribution to field sampling in 2019. We thank the associate editor Alberto Agnelli and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Starting Grant, WeThaw, grant agreement n?714617) to S.O, and S.O. acknowledges funding from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium, FC69480). The Bonanza Creek LTER website is acknowledged for the Eight Mile Lake data access, with support from the National Science Foundation Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB Award number: 1754839), the Department of Energy NICCR Program; Department of Energy Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes; the National Science Foundation CAREER Program; the National Parks Inventory and Monitoring Program; the National Science Foundation Bonanza Creek LTER program; the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs and the Arctic Natural Sciences Program.
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Laurence Monin, Claudine Givron, Elodie Devos, and Hélène Dailly from the analytical platform MOCA at UCLouvain. Justin Ledman is thanked for his valuable contribution to field logistics and sampling, and Catherine Hirst, Arthur Monhonval and Simon Malvaux are thanked for their contribution to field sampling in 2019. We thank the associate editor Alberto Agnelli and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Starting Grant, WeThaw, grant agreement n°714617) to S.O, and S.O. acknowledges funding from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium, FC69480). The Bonanza Creek LTER website is acknowledged for the Eight Mile Lake data access, with support from the National Science Foundation Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB Award number: 1754839), the Department of Energy NICCR Program; Department of Energy Terrestrial Ecosystem Processes; the National Science Foundation CAREER Program; the National Parks Inventory and Monitoring Program; the National Science Foundation Bonanza Creek LTER program; the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs and the Arctic Natural Sciences Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Climate change affects the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions by exposing previously frozen permafrost to thaw, unlocking soil nutrients, changing hydrological processes, and boosting plant growth. As a result, sub-Arctic tundra is subject to a shrub expansion, called “shrubification”, at the expense of sedge species. Depending on the intrinsic foliar properties of these plant species, changes in foliar mineral element fluxes with shrubification in the context of permafrost degradation may influence topsoil mineral element composition. Despite the potential implications of changes in topsoil mineral element concentrations for the fate of organic carbon, this remains poorly quantified. Here, we investigate vegetation foliar and topsoil mineral element composition (Si, K, Ca, P, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo, V) across a natural gradient of permafrost degradation at a typical sub-Arctic tundra at Eight Mile Lake (Alaska, USA). Results show that foliar mineral element concentrations are higher (up to 9 times; Si, K, Mo for all species, and for some species Zn) or lower (up to 2 times; Ca, P, Mn, Cu, V for all species, and for some species Zn) in sedge than in shrub species. As a result, a vegetation shift over ∼40 years has resulted in lower topsoil concentrations in Si, K, Zn, and Mo (respectively of 52, 24, 20, and 51%) in highly degraded permafrost sites compared to poorly degraded permafrost sites due to lower foliar fluxes of these elements. For other elements (Ca, P, Mn, Cu, and V), the vegetation shift has not induced a marked change in topsoil concentrations at this current stage of permafrost degradation. A modeled amplified shrubification associated with a further permafrost degradation is expected to increase foliar Ca, P, Mn, Cu, and V fluxes, which will likely change these element concentrations in topsoil. These data can serve as a first estimate to assess the influence of other shifts in vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra such as sedge expansion under wetter soil conditions.
AB - Climate change affects the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions by exposing previously frozen permafrost to thaw, unlocking soil nutrients, changing hydrological processes, and boosting plant growth. As a result, sub-Arctic tundra is subject to a shrub expansion, called “shrubification”, at the expense of sedge species. Depending on the intrinsic foliar properties of these plant species, changes in foliar mineral element fluxes with shrubification in the context of permafrost degradation may influence topsoil mineral element composition. Despite the potential implications of changes in topsoil mineral element concentrations for the fate of organic carbon, this remains poorly quantified. Here, we investigate vegetation foliar and topsoil mineral element composition (Si, K, Ca, P, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo, V) across a natural gradient of permafrost degradation at a typical sub-Arctic tundra at Eight Mile Lake (Alaska, USA). Results show that foliar mineral element concentrations are higher (up to 9 times; Si, K, Mo for all species, and for some species Zn) or lower (up to 2 times; Ca, P, Mn, Cu, V for all species, and for some species Zn) in sedge than in shrub species. As a result, a vegetation shift over ∼40 years has resulted in lower topsoil concentrations in Si, K, Zn, and Mo (respectively of 52, 24, 20, and 51%) in highly degraded permafrost sites compared to poorly degraded permafrost sites due to lower foliar fluxes of these elements. For other elements (Ca, P, Mn, Cu, and V), the vegetation shift has not induced a marked change in topsoil concentrations at this current stage of permafrost degradation. A modeled amplified shrubification associated with a further permafrost degradation is expected to increase foliar Ca, P, Mn, Cu, and V fluxes, which will likely change these element concentrations in topsoil. These data can serve as a first estimate to assess the influence of other shifts in vegetation in Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra such as sedge expansion under wetter soil conditions.
KW - mineral elements
KW - permafrost degradation
KW - shrubification
KW - sub-Arctic tundra
KW - topsoil
KW - vegetation change
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U2 - 10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.115915
DO - 10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.115915
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129294739
SN - 0016-7061
VL - 421
JO - Geoderma
JF - Geoderma
M1 - 115915
ER -