Impacts of a decadal drainage disturbance on surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide in a permafrost ecosystem ...

• Main Authors: Kittler, Fanny, Burjack, Ina, Corradi, Chiara A.R., Heimann, Martin, Kolle, Olaf, Merbold, Lutz, Zimov, Sergey, Göckede, Mathias
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2016
• Subjects: permafrost; Tundra; Siberia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000121181; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/121181

Hydrologic conditions are a major controlling factor for carbon exchange processes in high-latitude ecosystems. The presence or absence of water-logged conditions can lead to significant shifts in ecosystem structure and carbon cycle processes. In this study, we compared growing season CO2 fluxes of a wet tussock tundra ecosystem from an area affected by decadal drainage to an undisturbed area on the Kolyma floodplain in northeastern Siberia. For this comparison we found the sink strength for CO2 in recent years (2013–2015) to be systematically reduced within the drained area, with a minor increase in photosynthetic uptake due to a higher abundance of shrubs outweighed by a more pronounced increase in respiration due to warmer near-surface soil layers. Still, in comparison to the strong reduction of fluxes immediately following the drainage disturbance in 2005, recent CO2 exchange with the atmosphere over this disturbed part of the tundra indicate a higher carbon turnover, and a seasonal amplitude that is ... : Biogeosciences, 13 (18) ...