Toward a Predictive Understanding of the Response of Belowground Microbial Carbon Turnover to Climate Change Drivers in a Boreal Peatland

High latitude peatlands cover only 3% of the Earth’s land surface but store approximately 1/3 of all soil carbon (C), and act as sinks for atmospheric C. Despite their significance, wetland-specific processes are not included in global climate models, including the land component (CLM4) of the Community Earth System Model. Soil organic matter (SOM) pools and decomposition rates used in these models are derived from mineral soils, which are likely to respond very differently to climate change drivers compared to the saturated organic soils of peatland systems. The flux of C from terrestrial soils to the atmosphere is projected to increase with climate change, but acceleration of the terrestrial C cycle does not necessarily mean that soils will lose a greater proportion of their large C stores to the atmosphere.