Preface: Impacts of extreme climate events and disturbances on carbon dynamics

Abstract. The impacts of disturbances and extreme climate on the carbon cycle have received growing attention in recent years as evidenced by the increasing number of journal articles published on these topics. This special issue showcases a collection of recent advancements in understanding the impacts of disturbances and extreme events on the carbon cycle. Notable advancements include, but are not limited to, quantifying how harvesting activities impact forest structure, carbon pool dynamics, and recovery processes; observed drastic increases of the concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and dissolved methane in thermokarst lakes in western Siberia in a summer warming event; disentangling the roles of herbivores and fire on forest carbon dioxide flux; direct and indirect impacts of fire on the global carbon balance; and improved atmospheric inversion of regional carbon sources and sinks byincorporating disturbances. Combined, studies herein indicate several major research needs. First, disturbances and extreme events can interact with one another, and it is important to understand their overall impacts and also disentangle their relative effects on the carbon cycle. Second, benchmark data layers characterizing the timing, location, type, and magnitude of disturbances must be systematically created to improve our ability to quantify carbon dynamics over large areas. Third, current ecosystem models are not skillful enough to correctly simulate the impacts of disturbances such as disturbance-induced tree mortality and its carbon consequences, and therefore must be improved to correctly represent underlying processes and impacts.