Authors
Eunji Byun, Fereidoun Rezanezhad, Stephanie Slowinski, Christina Lam, Saraswati Saraswati, Stephanie Wright, William L Quinton, Kara L Webster, Philippe Van Cappellen
Publication date
2024/4/16
Journal
EGUsphere
Volume
2024
Pages
1-18
Publisher
Copernicus Publications
Description
The adverse impacts of excessive soil nutrients on water quality and carbon sequestration have been recognized in tropical and temperate regions, with already widespread industrial farming and urbanization, but rarely in subarctic regions. However, recent studies have shown significant increases in porewater nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in burned subarctic peatlands and downstream waters, which is a growing concern as climate change leads to increasing wildfires, permafrost thaws, and waterlogged peatlands. In this study, we present the results of a short-term incubation experiment conducted on soils from subarctic bogs and fens, aimed at evaluating the effects of high levels of nutrients on carbon gas production rates. We divided aliquots of the peatland soil samples into separate containers and added artificial porewater to each, enriching them with dissolved inorganic nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), both, or none for controls. Overall, the fen samples showed higher carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) production rates at 1, 5, 15, and 25 °C compared to the bog samples, which we attributed to differences in soil properties and initial microbial biomass. The bog sample with added N produced more CO2 compared to its control, while the fen sample with added P produced more CO2 compared to its control. It was unexpected that the addition of both N and P reduced CO2 but increased CH4 production in both soils compared to their controls. After a month, the pore water C, N, and P stochiometric ratios approached the initial soil microbial biomass ratios, suggesting microbial nutrient recycling in an inherently nutrient …