Glob. Change Biol. http://doi.org/hs3 (2012)
Plant production in northern peatlands is generally nitrogen limited. A key ecological question is whether thawing of permafrost will lead to the release of nitrogen in a form that can be used by plants.
Frida Keuper, from the Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and co-workers compared plant-available nitrogen pools and fluxes in near-surface permafrost (0–10 cm below the thawfront) with those taken from the current-rooting-zone layer (5–15 cm depth) across five representative peatlands in subarctic Sweden.
Results consistently showed up to seven times more plant-available nitrogen in near-surface permafrost soil compared with the current-rooting-zone layer. Furthermore, a supplementary experiment showed an eightfold larger plant nitrogen uptake from permafrost soil than from other nitrogen sources, such as current-rooting-zone soil or fresh litter substrates. These results demonstrate that near-surface permafrost soil of subarctic peatlands can release a biologically relevant amount of plant-available nitrogen, which may have impacts on plant productivity and species composition.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, A. Release from the cold. Nature Clim Change 2, 313 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1521
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1521