Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment
Permafrost soils, which are perennially frozen soils found throughout cold regions, contain vast quantities of carbon and ice. When permafrost thaws, carbon can be lost to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. This means it is important to track permafrost thaw, which is often done using a...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences |
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Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1801748 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1801748 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 |
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1801748 2023-07-30T03:55:26+02:00 Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment Rodenhizer, Heidi Ledman, Justin Mauritz, Marguerite Natali, Susan M. Pegoraro, Elaine Plaza, César Romano, Emily Schädel, Christina Taylor, Meghan Schuur, Edward 2021-09-29 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1801748 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1801748 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1801748 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1801748 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 doi:10.1029/2019jg005528 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2021 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 2023-07-11T10:04:45Z Permafrost soils, which are perennially frozen soils found throughout cold regions, contain vast quantities of carbon and ice. When permafrost thaws, carbon can be lost to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. This means it is important to track permafrost thaw, which is often done using active layer thickness, or the depth of the seasonally thawed surface layer of soil. However, ice volume can be lost from thawing permafrost, causing the soil surface to drop. Conventional measurements do not account for this surface drop, and the rate of thaw could therefore be underestimated. We found that experimentally warmed soils dropped at a rate of 6 cm year-1, mostly due to loss of ice volume and also due to the loss of soil mass. When accounting for the change in soil surface height over time, the full depth of permafrost thaw was 49% greater. The increased depth of thaw resulted in more than twice as much carbon being thawed as was estimated with standard methods that did not account for subsidence. These findings suggest that permafrost is thawing more quickly than long-term records indicate and that this could result in additional carbon release contributing to climate change. Other/Unknown Material Active layer thickness Ice permafrost SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 125 6 |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Rodenhizer, Heidi Ledman, Justin Mauritz, Marguerite Natali, Susan M. Pegoraro, Elaine Plaza, César Romano, Emily Schädel, Christina Taylor, Meghan Schuur, Edward Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
Permafrost soils, which are perennially frozen soils found throughout cold regions, contain vast quantities of carbon and ice. When permafrost thaws, carbon can be lost to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. This means it is important to track permafrost thaw, which is often done using active layer thickness, or the depth of the seasonally thawed surface layer of soil. However, ice volume can be lost from thawing permafrost, causing the soil surface to drop. Conventional measurements do not account for this surface drop, and the rate of thaw could therefore be underestimated. We found that experimentally warmed soils dropped at a rate of 6 cm year-1, mostly due to loss of ice volume and also due to the loss of soil mass. When accounting for the change in soil surface height over time, the full depth of permafrost thaw was 49% greater. The increased depth of thaw resulted in more than twice as much carbon being thawed as was estimated with standard methods that did not account for subsidence. These findings suggest that permafrost is thawing more quickly than long-term records indicate and that this could result in additional carbon release contributing to climate change. |
author |
Rodenhizer, Heidi Ledman, Justin Mauritz, Marguerite Natali, Susan M. Pegoraro, Elaine Plaza, César Romano, Emily Schädel, Christina Taylor, Meghan Schuur, Edward |
author_facet |
Rodenhizer, Heidi Ledman, Justin Mauritz, Marguerite Natali, Susan M. Pegoraro, Elaine Plaza, César Romano, Emily Schädel, Christina Taylor, Meghan Schuur, Edward |
author_sort |
Rodenhizer, Heidi |
title |
Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
title_short |
Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
title_full |
Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
title_fullStr |
Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles When Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment |
title_sort |
carbon thaw rate doubles when accounting for subsidence in a permafrost warming experiment |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1801748 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1801748 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 |
genre |
Active layer thickness Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Active layer thickness Ice permafrost |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1801748 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1801748 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 doi:10.1029/2019jg005528 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jg005528 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
125 |
container_issue |
6 |
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1772811862562308096 |