Phytomass and soil carbon inventories related to land cover
classification and periglacial landscape features at Ari-Mas and
Logata, Taimyr Peninsula.
RAMAGE Justine1, HUGELIUS Gustaf2, PALMTAG Juri3, LASHCHINSKIY
Nikolae4, P. KUHRY Peter5
1
Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University,
Sweden, just.ramage@gmail.com, 2Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary
Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden, gustaf.hugelius@natgeo.su.se, 3Department of
Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden,
juri.palmtag@natgeo.su.se 4 Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Russian Academy of
Sciences, Novosibirsk. 5Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology,
Stockholm University, Sweden, peter.kuhry@natgeo.su.se
Phytomass and soil carbon inventories related to land cover classification and
periglacial landscape features at Ari-Mas and Logata, Taimyr Peninsula.
The predicted increase in atmospheric temperatures is expected to affect the turnover
of soil organic carbon in permafrost soils through modifications of the soil thermal regime.
However, the tundra biome is formed of a mosaic of diverse landscape types with differing
patterns of soil organic carbon storage and partitioning. Among these, differences in e.g.
vegetation diversity and soil movements due to freeze-thaw processes are of main
importance for assessing potential C remobilization under a changing climate. In this study,
we described the storage of soil organic carbon (SOC) and the aboveground phytomass
carbon in relation to geomorphology and periglacial features for two areas on Taymir
Peninsula (Arctic Russia). An average of 29.5 kg C m2, calculated by upscaling with a land
cover classification, is stored in the upper soil meter at these two study sites. The mean C
phytomass storage amounts to ca.0.406 Kg C m2, or only 1.38 % of the total SOC storage.
The topography, at different scales, plays an important role in the carbon partitioning. High
amounts of soil organic carbon are found in highland areas and within the patterned ground
features found in peatlands. The highest amounts of aboveground phytomass carbon are
found in deciduous shrubs and moss layers. The large variability in carbon distribution within
land cover types among the sites reveals the challenge of upscaling the carbon storage
values over the Arctic and thus highlights the necessity to carry out detailed field inventories
in this region."