Drought-induced peatland carbon loss exacerbated by elevated CO <sub>2</sub> and warming
Extreme drought events are predicted to increase with climate change, yet their impacts on ecosystem carbon dynamics under warming and elevated carbon dioxide (eCO<sub>2</sub>) remain unclear. In a peatland experiment with five warming treatments each under ambient carbon dioxide (aCO<sub>2</sub>) and eCO<sub>2</sub> (+500 parts per million), a 2-month extreme drought in 2021 reduced net ecosystem productivity by 444.0 ± 65.8 and 736.6 ± 57.8 grams of carbon per square meter at +9°C under aCO<sub>2</sub> and eCO<sub>2</sub>, respectively-228.6 ± 56.8% and 381.9 ± 83.4% of the reduction at +0°C under aCO<sub>2</sub>. This exacerbation was driven by warming-induced water table decline, prolonged low water tables, and CO<sub>2</sub>-enhanced substrate availability through increased plant carbon inputs. Findings indicate that future climate will greatly amplify carbon loss during extreme drought, reinforcing positive carbon-climate feedbacks.
Authors
- Mirindi Eric Dusenge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4218-0911)
- Andrew David Richardson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0148-6714)
- Ning Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2864-9568)
- J. M. Warren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0680-4697)
- Jeffrey P. Chanton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-9708)
- Jonathan M. Stelling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3887-4240)
- Melanie A. Mayes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6368-9210)
- David J. Weston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4794-9913)
- Paul J. Hanson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7293-3561)
- Stephen D. Sebestyen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6315-0108)
- Lifen Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1546-8189)
- Yiqi Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4556-0218)
- Yu Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5544-8342)
- Danielle A. Way
- Joel E. Kostka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3051-1330)
- Daniel Ricciuto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3668-3021)
- Rachel Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5770-9614)
- Jian Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7885-047X)
- Quan Quan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8202-6858)
Institutions
- Florida State University (US)
- Australian National University (AU)
- Western University (CA)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Northern Arizona University (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Northern Research Station (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv7104
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.58