Much Larger Whole‐Profile Soil Organic Carbon Stocks on the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau Than Previously Reported

of 0.01-0.35 in the topsoil and 0.01-0.15 in the subsoil. Across the QTP, our results estimated a total SOC stock of 62.0 (95% confidence interval: 54.9-69.1) Pg C within the top 2 m of soil, with more than 60% stored below 0.3 m depth. This value is much larger than most of the existing estimates in the same region. Alpine meadows ecosystems accounted for approximately 38% of the total SOC stock, primarily due to their extensive coverage, while swamp meadow ecosystems exhibited the highest SOC densities. Spatial uncertainty was highest in the sparsely sampled northwestern QTP. Contemporary climate and paleoclimate factors collectively contributed over 50% to the explained variance in SOC distribution across the soil profile, highlighting the dominant role of climatic factors on SOC spatial pattern. This spatially explicit, high-resolution SOC mapping provides a baseline for constraining carbon-climate feedback assessments on the QTP and underscores the region's heightened vulnerability to ongoing climate warming.