How do boreal forests store carbon?

Kontakt: Michiel Op de Beeck (CEC), michiel.op_de_beeck@cec.lu.se

 

Boreal forests are characterized by a thick layer of soil organic matter (SOM) that decomposes very slowly. Even though boreal forests only cover about 11% of the Earth’s surface, they store one third of the global terrestrial carbon stock (Bradshaw and Warkentin, 2015). Boreal forest carbon stocks are therefore crucial for future climate change predictions, but the mechanisms underlying SOM stabilization are not well understood (Adamczyk, 2021). The most important factor that affects SOM stabilization is the type of microorganisms that decompose the SOM (Clemmensen et al., 2013). Boreal forests soils are dominated by ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, a group of fungi that live symbiotically on the roots of boreal forest trees such as Pine and Spruce. Since SOM is structurally very complex (Lehmann et al., 2008), it is difficult to study the decomposition of natural SOM. Therefore, in this project, we will be studying the decomposition of model SOM compounds such as lignin, cellulose and protein. Using infrared spectromicroscopy, we will visualize the chemical changes induced by decomposition of these model SOM compounds by ECM fungi. Concretely, this project aims to compare the chemical changes induced in SOM model compounds by different ECM fungal species to find common trends in how these fungi chemically alter SOM to make it more stable in soils.

 

References

Adamczyk, B. (2021). How do boreal forest soils store carbon? Bioessays 43.

Bradshaw, C.J.A., and Warkentin, I.G. (2015). Global estimates of boreal forest carbon stocks and flux. Global and Planetary Change 128, 24-30.

Clemmensen, K.E., Bahr, A., Ovaskainen, O., Dahlberg, A., Ekblad, A., Wallander, H., Stenlid, J., Finlay, R.D., Wardle, D.A., and Lindahl, B.D. (2013). Roots and Associated Fungi Drive Long-Term Carbon Sequestration in Boreal Forest. Science 339, 1615-1618.

Lehmann, J., Solomon, D., Kinyangi, J., Dathe, L., Wirick, S., and Jacobsen, C. (2008). Spatial complexity of soil organic matter forms at nanometre scales. Nature Geoscience 1, 238-242.

 

Uppdaterat: Nina Reistad  |  2022-07-07