The location- and scale- specific correlation between temperature and soil carbon sequestration across the globe

Abstract

Much research has been conducted to understand the spatial distribution of soil carbon stock and its temporal dynamics. However, an agreement has not been reached on whether increasing global temperature has a positive or negative feedback on soil carbon stocks. By analysing global maps of soil organic carbon (SOC) using a spherical wavelet analysis, it was found that the correlation between SOC and soil temperature at the regional scale was negative between 52° N and 40° S parallels and positive beyond this region. This was consistent with a few previous studies and it was assumed that the effect was most likely due to the temperature-dependent SOC formation (photosynthesis) and decomposition (microbial activities and substrate decomposability) processes. The results also suggested that the large SOC stocks distributed in the low-temperature areas might increase under global warming while the small SOC stocks found in the high-temperature areas might decrease accordingly. Although it remains unknown whether the potential increasing soil carbon stocks in the low-temperature areas can offset the loss of carbon stocks in the high-temperature areas, the location- and scale- specific correlations between SOC and temperature should be taken into account for modeling SOC dynamics and SOC sequestration management.