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Variation in Fine Root Characteristics and Nutrient Dynamics Across Alaskan Ecosystems

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Abstract

Carbon cycle perturbations in high-latitude ecosystems associated with rapid warming can have implications for the global climate. Belowground biomass is an important component of the carbon cycle in these ecosystems, with, on average, significantly more vegetation biomass belowground than aboveground. Large quantities of dead root biomass are also in these ecosystems owing to slow decomposition rates. Current understanding of how live and dead root biomass carbon pools vary across high-latitude ecosystems and the environmental conditions associated with this variation is limited due to the labor- and time-intensive nature of data collection. To that end, we examined patterns and factors (abiotic and biotic) associated with the variation in live and dead fine root biomass (FRB) and FRB carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus concentrations for 23 sites across a latitudinal gradient in Alaska, spanning both boreal forest and tundra biomes. We found no difference in the live or dead FRB variables between these biomes, despite large differences in predominant vegetation types, except for significantly higher live FRB C:N ratios in boreal sites. Soil C:N ratio, moisture, and temperature, along with moss cover, explained a substantial portion of the dead:live FRB ratio variability across sites. We find all these factors have negative relationships with dead FRB, while having positive or no relationship with live FRB. This work demonstrates that FRB does not necessarily correlate with aboveground vegetation characteristics, and it highlights the need for finer-scale measurements of abiotic and biotic factors to understand FRB landscape variability now and into the future.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Katie Heard, Sarah Hewitt, Alaina Norzagaray, Stan Skotnicki, and Karl Uy for their help in the field. We are grateful to Claudia Buszta, Dan Pucci, and Ana Tobio for their assistance in the laboratory processing samples. Funding for this research was provided by NSF PLR-1417745 to MML, NSF PLR-1417700 to SMN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Lindsay A. McCulloch

  2. Environmental Studies Program, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA

    Heather Kropp

  3. Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

    Alexander Kholodov

  4. Department of Biology, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA

    Catherine L. Cardelús

  5. Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA

    Susan M. Natali

  6. Department of Geography, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA

    Michael M. Loranty

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Correspondence to Lindsay A. McCulloch.

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Code used for the analyses and figures are archived in a GitHub repository (https://github.com/lmcculloch/AK2015/blob/master/McCulloch_ViPER_FineRoots_2020.R) and are published on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3997566). Data are publicly available and archived on the Arctic Data Center (https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi%3A10.18739%2FA2ZS2KD6V).

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Author Contributions

L.A.M and M.M.L. conceived of the study. L.A.M., H.K., A.K., C.L.C., S.M.N., and M.M.L performed the research. L.A.M. analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to editing and reviewing the manuscript.

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McCulloch, L.A., Kropp, H., Kholodov, A. et al. Variation in Fine Root Characteristics and Nutrient Dynamics Across Alaskan Ecosystems. Ecosystems 24, 1332–1347 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00583-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00583-8

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