Thermal acclimation of plant photosynthesis and autotrophic respiration in a northern peatland. (1st June 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Shuang; Jiang, Lifen; Wilson, Rachel M; Chanton, Jeff; Niu, Shuli; Iversen, Colleen M; Malhotra, Avni; Jiang, Jiang; Huang, Yuanyuan; Lu, Xingjie; Shi, Zheng; Tao, Feng; Liang, Junyi; Ricciuto, Daniel; Hanson, Paul J; Luo, Yiqi
• Is Part Of: Environmental research. Volume 2:Number 2(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-06-01
• Subjects: autotrophic respiration -- data-model fusion -- peatland -- photosynthesis -- thermal acclimation -- warming; Climatic changes -- Periodicals; Climatic changes -- Research -- Periodicals; Climate change mitigation -- Periodicals; Global environmental change -- Periodicals; 363.7387405
• DOI: 10.1088/2752-5295/acc67e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2752-5295

Abstract

Abstract: Peatlands contain one-third of global soil carbon (C), but the responses of peatland ecosystems to long-term warming are not well understood. Here, we pursue an emergent understanding of warming effects on ecosystem C fluxes at peatlands by constraining a process-oriented model, the terrestrial ECOsystem model, with observational data from a long-term warming experiment at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments site. Model-based assessments show that ecosystem-level photosynthesis and autotrophic respiration exhibited significant thermal acclimation, with temperature sensitivities being linearly decreased with warming. Using the thermal-acclimated parameter values, simulated gross primary production, net primary production, and plant autotrophic respiration ( R a ), were all lower than those simulated with non-thermal acclimated parameter values. In contrast, ecosystem respiration simulated with thermal acclimated parameter values was higher than that simulated with non-thermal acclimated parameter values. Net ecosystem CO2 exchange was much higher after constraining model parameters with observational data from the warming treatments, releasing C at a rate of 28.3 g C m −2 yr −1 °C −1 . Our data-model integration study suggests that peatlands are likely to release more C than previously estimated. Earth system models may overestimate C uptake by peatlands under warming if physiological thermal acclimation of plants is not incorporated. Thus, it is critical to consider the long-term physiological thermal acclimation of plants in the models to better predict global C dynamics under future climate and their feedback to climate change.