Upscaling Soil Organic Carbon Measurements from NEON Terrestrial Sites to CONUS using a Multivariate Quantitative Method
Abstract
Soil represents a potentially large sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Globally, soil contains approximately twice as much carbon (C) as in the atmosphere and plants combined. However, the permanence of this land C sink under future climatic conditions is uncertain, and it is unclear if soils will continue to sequester C or if they will instead become a large net C source. Resolving this question is complicated by uncertainty in both measurements and models. Estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks at regional and global scales don't match across existing gridded databases. Differences in geochemical properties and how those are assumed to relate to soil C may have caused a mismatch in spatial patterns across different databases. For the U.S., we have a unique opportunity to use spatial clustering approaches to reduce uncertainties in soil C dynamics and constrain models at the continental scale by upscaling site-based measurements across the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We used multivariate clustering to segment data collected across NEON terrestrial sites based on spatial patterns of SOC and environmental covariates to develop scale-aware scaling relationships. The next step is to leverage existing NEON biogeochemistry, microbial, hydrology, and vegetation data products to produce quantitative SOC regional maps for the conterminous United States (CONUS) using similar combinations of environmental and microbial variables. This work aims to provide a robust SOC estimate for CONUS that can inform terrestrial C cycle processes in Earth system models.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.B34B..06S