Abstract
Terrestrial ecosystems of Canada store a large amount of organic carbon
(C) in soils, peats and plant materials, yet little is known about the C
stock size and distributions, both spatially and in various C pools. As
temperature rises, C is becoming available for disturbance,
decomposition and eventual release into the atmosphere, which makes the
quantification of C stocks in terrestrial ecosystems of Canada of high
interest for the assessment of climate change impacts and conservation
efforts. We used a large number of field measurements, multisource
satellite, climate and topographic data and a machine learning algorithm
to produce the first wall-to-wall estimates of C stocks and
uncertainties in plants and soils of Canada at 250 m spatial resolution.
Our findings show that above and belowground live biomass and detritus
store a total of 21.1 Pg C. Whereas the Canadian soils store 384 (±214,
90% confidence interval) Pg organic C in the top 1 m, 92 Pg C of which
are stored in peatlands, confirming that the soil organic C dominates
terrestrial carbon stocks in Canada. We also find previously
under-reported large soil organic C stocks in forested peatlands on the
boreal shields of Canada. Given that Canada is warming twice the global
average rate and Canadian soils store approximately 25% of world soil C
stocks in top 1 m, initiatives to understand their vulnerabilities to
climate change and disturbance are indispensable not only for Canada but
also for the global C budget and cycle.