title: Determinants of carbon release from the active layer and permafrost deposits on the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: The sign and magnitude of permafrost carbon (C)-climate feedback are highly uncertain due to the limited understanding of the decomposability of thawing permafrost and relevant mechanistic controls over C release. Here, by combining aerobic incubation with biomarker analysis and a three-pool model, we reveal that C quality (represented by a higher amount of fast cycling C but a lower amount of recalcitrant C compounds) and normalized CO2-C release in permafrost deposits were similar or even higher than those in the active layer, demonstrating a high vulnerability of C in Tibetan upland permafrost. We also illustrate that C quality exerts the most control over CO2-C release from the active layer, whereas soil microbial abundance is more directly associated with CO2-C release after permafrost thaw. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of incorporating microbial properties into Earth System Models when predicting permafrost C dynamics under a changing environment.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Leiyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-0245, USA.
authors.forename: Junyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Shuqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciecnces, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.|Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Hadal Science and Technology, College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
authors.forename: Yunping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Jinzhi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-0245, USA.
authors.forename: Yiqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Yuanhe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang