Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America
Northern peatlands contain a large terrestrial carbon pool that plays an important role in the Earth's carbon cycle. A considerable fraction of this carbon pool is currently in permafrost and is biogeochemically relatively inert; this will change with increasing soil temperatures as a result of...
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2011
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 https://doaj.org/article/eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 2023-05-15T17:57:07+02:00 Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America D. Wisser S. Marchenko J. Talbot C. Treat S. Frolking 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 https://doaj.org/article/eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/2/121/2011/esd-2-121-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 2190-4979 2190-4987 https://doaj.org/article/eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 Earth System Dynamics, Vol 2, Iss 1, Pp 121-138 (2011) Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 article 2011 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 2022-12-31T00:05:22Z Northern peatlands contain a large terrestrial carbon pool that plays an important role in the Earth's carbon cycle. A considerable fraction of this carbon pool is currently in permafrost and is biogeochemically relatively inert; this will change with increasing soil temperatures as a result of climate warming in the 21st century. We use a geospatially explicit representation of peat areas and peat depth from a recently-compiled database and a geothermal model to estimate northern North America soil temperature responses to predicted changes in air temperature. We find that, despite a widespread decline in the areas classified as permafrost, soil temperatures in peatlands respond more slowly to increases in air temperature owing to the insulating properties of peat. We estimate that an additional 670 km 3 of peat soils in North America, containing ~33 Pg C, could be seasonally thawed by the end of the century, representing ~20 % of the total peat volume in Alaska and Canada. Warming conditions result in a lengthening of the soil thaw period by ~40 days, averaged over the model domain. These changes have potentially important implications for the carbon balance of peat soils. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada Earth System Dynamics 2 1 121 138 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
spellingShingle |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 D. Wisser S. Marchenko J. Talbot C. Treat S. Frolking Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
topic_facet |
Science Q Geology QE1-996.5 Dynamic and structural geology QE500-639.5 |
description |
Northern peatlands contain a large terrestrial carbon pool that plays an important role in the Earth's carbon cycle. A considerable fraction of this carbon pool is currently in permafrost and is biogeochemically relatively inert; this will change with increasing soil temperatures as a result of climate warming in the 21st century. We use a geospatially explicit representation of peat areas and peat depth from a recently-compiled database and a geothermal model to estimate northern North America soil temperature responses to predicted changes in air temperature. We find that, despite a widespread decline in the areas classified as permafrost, soil temperatures in peatlands respond more slowly to increases in air temperature owing to the insulating properties of peat. We estimate that an additional 670 km 3 of peat soils in North America, containing ~33 Pg C, could be seasonally thawed by the end of the century, representing ~20 % of the total peat volume in Alaska and Canada. Warming conditions result in a lengthening of the soil thaw period by ~40 days, averaged over the model domain. These changes have potentially important implications for the carbon balance of peat soils. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
D. Wisser S. Marchenko J. Talbot C. Treat S. Frolking |
author_facet |
D. Wisser S. Marchenko J. Talbot C. Treat S. Frolking |
author_sort |
D. Wisser |
title |
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
title_short |
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
title_full |
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
title_fullStr |
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America |
title_sort |
soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in north america |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 https://doaj.org/article/eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
permafrost Alaska |
op_source |
Earth System Dynamics, Vol 2, Iss 1, Pp 121-138 (2011) |
op_relation |
http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/2/121/2011/esd-2-121-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4979 https://doaj.org/toc/2190-4987 doi:10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 2190-4979 2190-4987 https://doaj.org/article/eefe7e907f9c4f1aac36acd508172928 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2-121-2011 |
container_title |
Earth System Dynamics |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
121 |
op_container_end_page |
138 |
_version_ |
1766165483277516800 |