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Anders Ahlström

Anders Ahlström

Senior lecturer

Anders Ahlström

Soil carbon storage capacity of drylands under altered fire regimes

Author

  • Adam F.A. Pellegrini
  • Peter B. Reich
  • Sarah E. Hobbie
  • Corli Coetsee
  • Benjamin Wigley
  • Edmund February
  • Katerina Georgiou
  • Cesar Terrer
  • E. N.J. Brookshire
  • Anders Ahlström
  • Lars Nieradzik
  • Stephen Sitch
  • Joe R. Melton
  • Matthew Forrest
  • Fang Li
  • Stijn Hantson
  • Chantelle Burton
  • Chao Yue
  • Philippe Ciais
  • Robert B. Jackson
Show all

Summary, in English

The determinants of fire-driven changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) across broad environmental gradients remains unclear, especially in global drylands. Here we combined datasets and field sampling of fire-manipulation experiments to evaluate where and why fire changes SOC and compared our statistical model to simulations from ecosystem models. Drier ecosystems experienced larger relative changes in SOC than humid ecosystems—in some cases exceeding losses from plant biomass pools—primarily explained by high fire-driven declines in tree biomass inputs in dry ecosystems. Many ecosystem models underestimated the SOC changes in drier ecosystems. Upscaling our statistical model predicted that soils in savannah–grassland regions may have gained 0.64 PgC due to net-declines in burned area over the past approximately two decades. Consequently, ongoing declines in fire frequencies have probably created an extensive carbon sink in the soils of global drylands that may have been underestimated by ecosystem models.

Department/s

  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
  • LTH Profile Area: Aerosols
  • eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth System

Publishing year

2023-10

Language

English

Pages

1089-1094

Publication/Series

Nature Climate Change

Volume

13

Issue

10

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Physical Geography
  • Climate Research

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1758-678X