The role of permafrost soils in the global carbon-cycle on the timescales of centuries to multi-millennia : a modelling study

• Main Author: Crichton, Katherine
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Grenoble, Jérôme Chappellaz, Didier Roche
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: Carbon cycle; Paleoclimate; Modelling; Isotopes; Permafrost; Cycle du carbone; Paléoclimat; Modélisation; Pergelisol; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Southern Ocean; Ice; ice core; Ice Sheet; permafrost; pergélisol
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01551812; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01551812/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01551812/file/CRICHTON_2014_archivage.pdf

This study aimed to develop a permafrost-carbon dynamic model to incorporate into the CLIMBER-2 Earth system model and to carry out simulations with a view to contributing to the knowledge of the carbon cycle. The work would, for the first time, allow a fully coupled modelling study with an earth system model which included dynamic atmosphere, ocean, vegetation and cryosphere components including frozen land to study paleoclimates. The availability of recent ice core data for CO2 and δ13C of atmospheric CO2 was to provide a means of validating model findings to identify whether a permafrost-carbon dynamic could have played a significant role in past changing climates.The deep Southern Ocean is an area of particular interest for glacial-interglacial CO2 variability, and current modelling efforts aim to recreate the observed CO2 changes using ocean mechanisms. These are often related to deep southern ocean carbon storage and release. So far the terrestrial biosphere has not been well-considered in transient simulations of the carbon cycle in Earth system models.A simplified permafrost-carbon mechanism was developed and validated and tuned using data from termination 1. It was found that in order to reproduce atmospheric CO2 and δ13C data (for atmosphere and ocean) during the termination, a combination of glacial ocean mechanisms and the permafrost-carbon mechanism was required. Following this finding, several glacial cycles were modelled to study the sensitivity of the permafrost-carbon mechanisms to CO2, ice sheets and insolation. Ice sheet extent was found to be particularly important in controlling the land area available for permafrost and therefore the carbon dynamics of permafrost-carbon. The permafrost-carbon mechanism, via carbon release from thawing soils responding to increasing summer insolation in higher northern latitudes, was found to very likely be the source of initial rises in CO2 on glacial terminations.Termination 1 CO2 data could be well reproduced, including the B-A/YD CO2 plateau, when fresh ...