Elevated CO 2 mitigated warming-enhanced carbon loss from northern peatland

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Abstract
Peatlands store one-third of the global soil carbon (C) on only ∼3% of Earth’s land surface but risk becoming C sources to accelerate climate change due to warming-induced C loss. Elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) may mitigate this loss by boosting plant C uptake. However, how eCO 2 and climate warming interact to influence peatland C dynamics remains unclear. Here, we investigated peatland C fate at five warming levels (+0°, +2.25°, +4.5°, +6.75°, and + 9°C), each under ambient CO 2 (aCO 2 ) and eCO 2 (+500 parts per million), by model-guided synthesis of 18 measured variables for each of the 10 treatments from an experiment. Our results showed that the peatland C loss increased with warming at a rate of 62.6 g C m −2 year −1 °C −1 , reaching 476.5 ± 104.7 g C m −2 year −1 at +9°C under aCO 2 , primarily because of increased Sphagnum mortality and accelerated decomposition. eCO 2 reduced the loss rate to 17.3 g C m −2 year −1 °C −1 , nearly halving the C loss at +9°C (269.4 ± 80.5 g C m −2 year −1 ), mainly due to enhanced tree and shrub growth. Methane emissions increased with warming, similarly under aCO 2 and eCO 2 . Our findings suggest that northern peatlands likely become major C sources under climate warming, although rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration may partially slow down the C loss. Climate-driven shifts in plant community structure, rather than peat decomposition alone, play a critical role in regulating peatland C fate and may threaten the stability of peatland ecosystem functions and services in the future.
Funding Information
  • National Science Foundation (DEB 2406930)
  • National Science Foundation (DEB 2425290)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC05-1008 00OR22725)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0023514)
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (2023-67021-39829)

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