Soil organic carbon pools in a periglacial landscape: a case study from the central Canadian Arctic

We investigated total storage and landscape partitioning of soil organic carbon (SOC) in continuous permafrost terrain, central Canadian Arctic. The study is based on soil chemical analyses of pedons sampled to 1‐m depth at 35 individual sites along three transects. Radiocarbon dating of cryoturbated soil pockets, basal peat and fossil wood shows that cryoturbation processes have been occurring since the Middle Holocene and that peat deposits started to accumulate in a forest‐tundra environment where spruce was present (∼6000 cal yrs BP). Detailed partitioning of SOC into surface organic horizons, cryoturbated soil pockets and non‐cryoturbated mineral soil horizons is calculated (with storage in active layer and permafrost calculated separately) and explored using principal component analysis. The detailed partitioning and mean storage of SOC in the landscape are estimated from transect vegetation inventories and a land cover classification based on a Landsat satellite image. Mean SOC storage in the 0–100‐cm depth interval is 33.8 kg C m−2, of which 11.8 kg C m−2 is in permafrost. Fifty‐six per cent of the total SOC mass is stored in peatlands (mainly bogs), but cryoturbated soil pockets in Turbic Cryosols also contribute significantly (17%). Elemental C/N ratios indicate that this cryoturbated soil organic matter (SOM) decomposes more slowly than SOM in surface O‐horizons. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.