Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope

• Main Authors: Schiferl, Luke D., Watts, Jennifer D., Larson, Erik J. L., Arndt, Kyle A., Biraud, Sébastien C., Euskirchen, Eugénie S., Henderson, John M., McKain, Kathryn, Mountain, Marikate E., Munger, J. William, Oechel, Walter C., Sweeney, Colm, Yi, Yonghong, Zona, Donatella, Commane, Róisín
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Alaska North Slope; north slope; permafrost; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2022-167; https://bg.copernicus.org/preprints/bg-2022-167/

The continued warming of the Arctic could release vast stores of carbon into the atmosphere from high-latitude ecosystems, especially from thawing permafrost. Increasing uptake of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) by vegetation during longer growing seasons may partially offset such release of carbon. However, evidence of significant net annual release of carbon from site-level observations and model simulations across tundra ecosystems has been inconclusive. To address this knowledge gap, we combined top-down observations of atmospheric CO 2 concentrations from aircraft and a tall tower, which integrate ecosystem exchange over large regions, with bottom-up observed CO 2 fluxes from tundra environments and found that the Alaska North Slope is not a consistent net source or net sink of CO 2 to the atmosphere (ranging from –6 to +6 TgC yr –1 for 2012–2017). Our analysis suggests that significant biogenic CO 2 fluxes from unfrozen terrestrial soils, and likely inland waters, during the early cold season (September–December) are major factors in determining the net annual carbon balance of the North Slope, implying strong sensitivity to the rapidly warming freeze-up period. At the regional level, we find no evidence for previously reported large late cold season (January–April) CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere during the study period. Despite the importance of the cold season CO 2 emissions to the annual total, the interannual variability of the net CO 2 flux is driven by the variability in growing season fluxes. During the growing season, the regional net CO 2 flux is also highly sensitive to the distribution of tundra vegetation types throughout the North Slope. This study shows that quantification and characterization of year-round CO 2 fluxes from the heterogeneous terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Arctic using both site-level and atmospheric observations is important to accurately project the earth system response to future warming.