Soil charcoal as long‐term pyrogenic carbon storage in Amazonian seasonal forests
Forest fires (paleo + modern) have caused charcoal particles to accumulate in the soil vertical profile in Amazonia. This forest compartment is a long‐term carbon reservoir with an important role in global carbon balance. Estimates of stocks remain uncertain in forests that have not been altered by...
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| Published in: | Global change biology Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 190 - 197 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
England
Blackwell Science
01-01-2016
Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Forest fires (paleo + modern) have caused charcoal particles to accumulate in the soil vertical profile in Amazonia. This forest compartment is a long‐term carbon reservoir with an important role in global carbon balance. Estimates of stocks remain uncertain in forests that have not been altered by deforestation but that have been impacted by understory fires and selective logging. We estimated the stock of pyrogenic carbon derived from charcoal accumulated in the soil profile of seasonal forest fragments impacted by fire and selective logging in the northern portion of Brazilian Amazonia. Sixty‐nine soil cores to 1‐m depth were collected in 12 forest fragments of different sizes. Charcoal stocks averaged 3.45 ± 2.17 Mg ha⁻¹ (2.24 ± 1.41 Mg C ha⁻¹). Pyrogenic carbon was not directly related to the size of the forest fragments. This carbon is equivalent to 1.40% (0.25% to 4.04%) of the carbon stocked in aboveground live tree biomass in these fragments. The vertical distribution of pyrogenic carbon indicates an exponential model, where the 0–30 cm depth range has 60% of the total stored. The total area of Brazil's Amazonian seasonal forests and ecotones not altered by deforestation implies 65–286 Tg of pyrogenic carbon accumulated along the soil vertical profile. This is 1.2–2.3 times the total amount of residual pyrogenic carbon formed by biomass burning worldwide in 1 year. Our analysis suggests that the accumulated charcoal in the soil vertical profile in Amazonian forests is a substantial pyrogenic carbon pool that needs to be considered in global carbon models. |
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| Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13049 ark:/67375/WNG-4W9F6B4R-R istex:6278B64A7CD5B7BED055AE8146603B4B382CF5AF ArticleID:GCB13049 National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil - No. CNPq 303081/2011-2 Organization of American States (OAS) Figure S1. Physical and chemical characteristics of soils of forest fragments dispersed in the forest-savanna contact zone in Roraima. Where: sand, clay and silt in (%); SOM = Soil Organic Matter (g kg−1), SB = Sum of Bases (cmolc dm−3) and Al+3 = Aluminum (cmolc dm−3). The gray dots are estimates to show the behavior of these properties along the 1-m depth soil profile. Vertical bars are standard deviation (SD). Figure S2. Estimation of soil bulk density (g cm−3) in the 1-m vertical profile observed in forest fragments dispersed in the forest-savanna ecotone of Roraima, northern Brazilian Amazon. Bulk density was calculated as the ratio between the dry soil weight (g) of the samples and the Kopecky′s ring volume (cm3), following Embrapa (). The exponential model was derived from data by Feitosa (): Y = 1.2582 + 0.0437 × ln(X) (R² = 0.9943); where Y = soil bulk density (g cm−3) and X = midpoint of the depth interval (cm). Table S1. Geographical location, number of sub-samples and size of seasonal forest fragments (sampling units) in the forest-savanna ecotone of Roraima. Table S2. Pyrogenic carbon derived from soil charcoal found along the 1-m vertical profile in seasonal forest fragments of different sizes. Values in italics were estimated by regressions (exponential model) for each fragment individually. Numbers in bold are outliers that were normalized by the mean of all values for the respective depth ranges: 10-20 cm (39.34 Mg ha−1, fragment area = 1.252 ha) and 90-100 cm (9.19 Mg ha−1; fragment area = 44.685 ha). 'Ecology and Management of Natural Resources of the Roraima Savanna' project - No. PPI-INPA 015/122 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 1354-1013 1365-2486 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/gcb.13049 |