Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes
Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5062615 2023-05-15T16:37:24+02:00 Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes Olefeldt, D. Goswami, S. Grosse, G. Hayes, D. Hugelius, G. Kuhry, P. McGuire, A. D. Romanovsky, V. E. Sannel, A.B.K. Schuur, E.A.G. Turetsky, M. R. 2016-10-11 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5062615/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725633 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5062615/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725633 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 2016-10-30T00:09:08Z Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a circumpolar assessment of the distribution of thermokarst landscapes, defined as landscapes comprised of current thermokarst landforms and areas susceptible to future thermokarst development. At 3.6 × 106 km2, thermokarst landscapes are estimated to cover ∼20% of the northern permafrost region, with approximately equal contributions from three landscape types where characteristic wetland, lake and hillslope thermokarst landforms occur. We estimate that approximately half of the below-ground organic carbon within the study region is stored in thermokarst landscapes. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly considering thermokarst when assessing impacts of climate change, including future landscape greenhouse gas emissions, and provide a means for assessing such impacts at the circumpolar scale. Text Ice permafrost Thermokarst PubMed Central (PMC) Nature Communications 7 1 |
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Article Olefeldt, D. Goswami, S. Grosse, G. Hayes, D. Hugelius, G. Kuhry, P. McGuire, A. D. Romanovsky, V. E. Sannel, A.B.K. Schuur, E.A.G. Turetsky, M. R. Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
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description |
Thermokarst is the process whereby the thawing of ice-rich permafrost ground causes land subsidence, resulting in development of distinctive landforms. Accelerated thermokarst due to climate change will damage infrastructure, but also impact hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, we present a circumpolar assessment of the distribution of thermokarst landscapes, defined as landscapes comprised of current thermokarst landforms and areas susceptible to future thermokarst development. At 3.6 × 106 km2, thermokarst landscapes are estimated to cover ∼20% of the northern permafrost region, with approximately equal contributions from three landscape types where characteristic wetland, lake and hillslope thermokarst landforms occur. We estimate that approximately half of the below-ground organic carbon within the study region is stored in thermokarst landscapes. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly considering thermokarst when assessing impacts of climate change, including future landscape greenhouse gas emissions, and provide a means for assessing such impacts at the circumpolar scale. |
format |
Text |
author |
Olefeldt, D. Goswami, S. Grosse, G. Hayes, D. Hugelius, G. Kuhry, P. McGuire, A. D. Romanovsky, V. E. Sannel, A.B.K. Schuur, E.A.G. Turetsky, M. R. |
author_facet |
Olefeldt, D. Goswami, S. Grosse, G. Hayes, D. Hugelius, G. Kuhry, P. McGuire, A. D. Romanovsky, V. E. Sannel, A.B.K. Schuur, E.A.G. Turetsky, M. R. |
author_sort |
Olefeldt, D. |
title |
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
title_short |
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
title_full |
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
title_fullStr |
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
title_sort |
circumpolar distribution and carbon storage of thermokarst landscapes |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5062615/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725633 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 |
genre |
Ice permafrost Thermokarst |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost Thermokarst |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5062615/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27725633 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13043 |
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Nature Communications |
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