High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming
The carbon (C) balance of permafrost regions is predicted to be extremely sensitive to climatic changes. Major uncertainties exist in the rate of permafrost thaw and associated C emissions (33-508 Pg C or 0.04-1.69 °C by 2100; refs,) and plant C uptake. In the High Arctic, semi-deserts retain unique...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt8hz43445 2023-05-15T14:49:23+02:00 High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming Lupascu, M Welker, JM Seibt, U Maseyk, K Xu, X Czimczik, CI 51 - 55 2014-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hz43445 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt8hz43445 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hz43445 CC-BY CC-BY Nature Climate Change, vol 4, iss 1 Atmospheric Sciences Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Environmental Science and Management article 2014 ftcdlib 2021-06-20T14:23:05Z The carbon (C) balance of permafrost regions is predicted to be extremely sensitive to climatic changes. Major uncertainties exist in the rate of permafrost thaw and associated C emissions (33-508 Pg C or 0.04-1.69 °C by 2100; refs,) and plant C uptake. In the High Arctic, semi-deserts retain unique soil-plant-permafrost interactions and heterogeneous soil C pools (>12 Pg C; ref.). Owing to its coastal proximity, marked changes are expected for High Arctic tundra. With declining summer sea-ice cover, these systems are simultaneously exposed to rising temperatures, increases in precipitation and permafrost degradation. Here we show, using measurements of tundra-atmosphere C fluxes and soil C sources (14C) at a long-term climate change experiment in northwest Greenland, that warming decreased the summer CO 2 sink strength of semi-deserts by up to 55%. In contrast, warming combined with wetting increased the CO2 sink strength by an order of magnitude. Further, wetting while relocating recently assimilated plant C into the deep soil decreased old C loss compared with the warming-only treatment. Consequently, the High Arctic has the potential to remain a strong C sink even as the rest of the permafrost region transitions to a net C source as a result of future global warming. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice permafrost Sea ice Tundra University of California: eScholarship Arctic Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Atmospheric Sciences Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Environmental Science and Management |
spellingShingle |
Atmospheric Sciences Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Environmental Science and Management Lupascu, M Welker, JM Seibt, U Maseyk, K Xu, X Czimczik, CI High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric Sciences Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Environmental Science and Management |
description |
The carbon (C) balance of permafrost regions is predicted to be extremely sensitive to climatic changes. Major uncertainties exist in the rate of permafrost thaw and associated C emissions (33-508 Pg C or 0.04-1.69 °C by 2100; refs,) and plant C uptake. In the High Arctic, semi-deserts retain unique soil-plant-permafrost interactions and heterogeneous soil C pools (>12 Pg C; ref.). Owing to its coastal proximity, marked changes are expected for High Arctic tundra. With declining summer sea-ice cover, these systems are simultaneously exposed to rising temperatures, increases in precipitation and permafrost degradation. Here we show, using measurements of tundra-atmosphere C fluxes and soil C sources (14C) at a long-term climate change experiment in northwest Greenland, that warming decreased the summer CO 2 sink strength of semi-deserts by up to 55%. In contrast, warming combined with wetting increased the CO2 sink strength by an order of magnitude. Further, wetting while relocating recently assimilated plant C into the deep soil decreased old C loss compared with the warming-only treatment. Consequently, the High Arctic has the potential to remain a strong C sink even as the rest of the permafrost region transitions to a net C source as a result of future global warming. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lupascu, M Welker, JM Seibt, U Maseyk, K Xu, X Czimczik, CI |
author_facet |
Lupascu, M Welker, JM Seibt, U Maseyk, K Xu, X Czimczik, CI |
author_sort |
Lupascu, M |
title |
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
title_short |
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
title_full |
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
title_fullStr |
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
title_sort |
high arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hz43445 |
op_coverage |
51 - 55 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice permafrost Sea ice Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice permafrost Sea ice Tundra |
op_source |
Nature Climate Change, vol 4, iss 1 |
op_relation |
qt8hz43445 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hz43445 |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766320442578042880 |