IngentaConnect Sensitivity of Tundra Carbon Balance to Ambient Temperature

Authors: Zamolodchikov D.¹; Karelin D.²; Ivaschenko A.²

Source: Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, Volume 119, Numbers 1-4, April 2000 , pp. 157-169(13)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Summer field observations in the north-east European region of Russia (1995–1996) proved that natural local and temporal warming could cause similar reversible changes of carbon (C) balance pattern of south tundra ecosystems. Thirty-six diurnal chamber measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes at two different sites (67°57 prime N, 64°40 prime E; 67°20 prime N, 63°44 prime E) in 4 main types of ecosystems were studied. Wide magnitude of ambient mean diurnal air temperature (from +4.1 to +20.2 °C) allowed to obtain significant linear relationship between this parameter and variation in ecosystems C net flux (from –2.6 (sink) to +2.0 (source) gC m^-2 d^-1, R^2 = 0.769). In the midst of the vegetative season, an increase of mean diurnal air temperature in the plant canopy over the critical value of +14 °C lead to a change in the C net flux from sink to source. This can revert with a temperature decreases below the critical value. The above-mentioned effect is mostly due to the temperature influenced increase of gross ecosystem respiration. The summer temperature induced changes may result in positive (C source) annual C balance in some studied ecosystems. The annual C loss of shrub-dwarf shrub community in 1996 was estimated at 45 gC m^-2 yr^-1. We consider our results to be another evidence of possible positive feed-back between climate warming and C emission to the atmosphere on short-term and regional scales.

Keywords: carbon balance; CO; Russia; tundra; warming

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Forest Ecology and Production Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novocheryomushkinskaya str., 69, Moscow, 117418, Russia; (author for correspondence, e-mail: zamolod@glas.apc.org) 2: Biological Department of Moscow State University, Vorobievi gory, Moscow, 119899, Russia

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