Carbon dioxide release from retrogressive thaw slumps in Siberia

• Published in: Environmental Research Letters
• Main Authors: Beer, C, Runge, A, Grosse, G, Hugelius, G, Knoblauch, C
• Other Authors: BMBF, German Ministry of Education and Research, CCI, CLICCS
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IOP Publishing 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Ice; permafrost; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acfdbb; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acfdbb; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acfdbb/pdf

Abstract Thawing of ice-rich permafrost soils in sloped terrain can lead to activation of retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) which make organic matter available for decomposition that has been frozen for centuries to millennia. Recent studies show that the area affected by RTSs increased in the last two decades across the pan-Arctic. Combining a model of soil carbon dynamics with remotely sensed spatial details of thaw slump area and a soil carbon database, we show that RTSs in Siberia turned a previous quasi-neutral ecosystem into a strong source of carbon dioxide of 367 ± 213 gC m-1 a-1. On a global scale, recent CO 2 emissions from Siberian thaw slumps of 0.42 ± 0.22 Tg carbon per year are negligible so far. However, depending on the future evolution of permafrost thaw and hence thaw slump-affected area, such hillslope processes can transition permafrost landscapes to become a major source of additional CO 2 release into the atmosphere.