Decomposition of plant litter is a key control over carbon (C) storage in the soil. The biochemistry of the litter being produced, the environment in which the decomposition is taking place, and the community composition and metabolism of the decomposer organisms exert a combined influence over decomposition rates. As deciduous shrubs and trees are expanding into tundra ecosystems as a result of regional climate warming, this...

9Forests represent a major global C sink, and forest management strategies that maximize carbon storage offer one avenue for mitigating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Our understanding of relationships between forest management, productivity, carbon storage, and stand age, however, is limited. We established research plots in a chronosequence of thinned and unmanaged red pine stands in northern Minneso...

Tropical peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycling but little is known about factors regulating carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) fluxes from these ecosystems. Here, we test the hypotheses that (i) CO 2 and CH 4 are produced mainly from surface peat and (ii) that the contribution of subsurface peat to net C emissions is governed by substrate availability. To achieve this, in situ and ex situ CO 2 a...