Articles | Volume 7, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-2683-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-2683-2014
Development and technical paper
 | 
13 Nov 2014
Development and technical paper |  | 13 Nov 2014

Response of microbial decomposition to spin-up explains CMIP5 soil carbon range until 2100

J.-F. Exbrayat, A. J. Pitman, and G. Abramowitz

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Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by Jean-François Exbrayat on behalf of the Authors (11 Aug 2014)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (19 Aug 2014) by Carlos Sierra
AR by Jean-François Exbrayat on behalf of the Authors (29 Sep 2014)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (08 Oct 2014) by Carlos Sierra
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Short summary
Pre-industrial soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks vary 6-fold in models used in the 5th IPCC Assessment Report. This paper shows that this range is largely determined by model-specific responses of microbal decomposition during the equilibration procedure. As SOC stocks are maintained through the present and to 2100 almost unchanged, we propose that current SOC observations could be used to constrain this equilibration procedure and thereby reduce the uncertainty in climate change projections.