Carbon (C) allocation and turnover in arctic bryophytes is largely unknown, but their response to climatic change has potentially significant impacts on arctic ecosystem C budgets.
Using a combination of pulse-chase experiments and a newly developed model of C turnover in bryophytes, the authors show significant differences in C turnover between two contrasting arctic moss species (Polytrichum piliferum and Sphagnum fuscum).
C abundance in moss tissues (measured up to 1 year) and respired CO2 (traced over 5 days) were used to parameterise the bryophyte C model with four pools representing labile and structural C in photosynthetic and stem tissue. The model was optimised using an Ensemble Kalman Filter to ensure a focus on estimating the confidence intervals (CI) on model parameters and outputs.
These results are the first to show differences in C partitioning between arctic bryophyte species in situ and highlight the importance of modelling C dynamics of this group separately from vascular plants for a realistic representation of vegetation in arctic C models.
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