High Levels of CO2 Exchange During Synoptic-Scale Events Introduce Large Uncertainty Into the Arctic Carbon Budget

CO2 release from thawing permafrost is both a consequence of, and a driver for, global warming, making accurate information on the Arctic carbon cycle essential for climate predictions. Eddy covariance data obtained from Bayelva (Svalbard) in 2015, using well-established processing and quality contr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Jentzsch, K., Schulz, A., Pirk, Norbert, Foken, T., Crewell, S., Boike, Julia
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Arctic
Bayelva
Svalbard
Global warming
permafrost
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10852/93292
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-95863
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092256
Description
Summary:CO2 release from thawing permafrost is both a consequence of, and a driver for, global warming, making accurate information on the Arctic carbon cycle essential for climate predictions. Eddy covariance data obtained from Bayelva (Svalbard) in 2015, using well-established processing and quality control techniques, indicate that most of the annual net CO2 uptake is due to high CO2 flux events in winter that are associated with strong winds and probably relate to technical limitations of the gas analyzer. Emission events may relate to either (unidentified) instrumental limitations or to physical processes such as CO2 advection. Excluding the high winter uptake events yields an annual CO2 budget close to zero; whether or not these events are included can, therefore, have a considerable effect on carbon budget calculations. Further investigation will be crucial to pinpoint the factors causing these high CO2 flux events and to derive scientifically substantiated flux processing standards.

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