Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014

Permafrost thaw increases active layer thickness, changes landscape hydrology and influences vegetation species composition. These changes alter belowground microbial and geochemical processes, affecting production, consumption and net emission rates of climate forcing trace gases. Net carbon dioxid...

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Published in:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Main Authors: Varner, Ruth K., Crill, Patrick M., Frolking, Steve, McCalley, Carmody K., Burke, Sophia A., Chanton, Jeffrey P., Holmes, M. Elizabeth, Saleska, Scott, Palace, Michael W.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646141/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34865532
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8646141 2023-05-15T13:03:11+02:00 Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014 Varner, Ruth K. Crill, Patrick M. Frolking, Steve McCalley, Carmody K. Burke, Sophia A. Chanton, Jeffrey P. Holmes, M. Elizabeth Saleska, Scott Palace, Michael W. 2022-01-24 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646141/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34865532 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646141/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34865532 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022 © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci Articles Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022 2022-02-06T01:39:31Z Permafrost thaw increases active layer thickness, changes landscape hydrology and influences vegetation species composition. These changes alter belowground microbial and geochemical processes, affecting production, consumption and net emission rates of climate forcing trace gases. Net carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and methane (CH(4)) fluxes determine the radiative forcing contribution from these climate-sensitive ecosystems. Permafrost peatlands may be a mosaic of dry frozen hummocks, semi-thawed or perched sphagnum dominated areas, wet permafrost-free sedge dominated sites and open water ponds. We revisited estimates of climate forcing made for 1970 and 2000 for Stordalen Mire in northern Sweden and found the trend of increasing forcing continued into 2014. The Mire continued to transition from dry permafrost to sedge and open water areas, increasing by 100% and 35%, respectively, over the 45-year period, causing the net radiative forcing of Stordalen Mire to shift from negative to positive. This trend is driven by transitioning vegetation community composition, improved estimates of annual CO(2) and CH(4) exchange and a 22% increase in the IPCC's 100-year global warming potential (GWP_100) value for CH(4). These results indicate that discontinuous permafrost ecosystems, while still remaining a net overall sink of C, can become a positive feedback to climate change on decadal timescales. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)’. Text Active layer thickness Northern Sweden permafrost PubMed Central (PMC) Stordalen ENVELOPE(7.337,7.337,62.510,62.510) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 380 2215
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Articles
spellingShingle Articles
Varner, Ruth K.
Crill, Patrick M.
Frolking, Steve
McCalley, Carmody K.
Burke, Sophia A.
Chanton, Jeffrey P.
Holmes, M. Elizabeth
Saleska, Scott
Palace, Michael W.
Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
topic_facet Articles
description Permafrost thaw increases active layer thickness, changes landscape hydrology and influences vegetation species composition. These changes alter belowground microbial and geochemical processes, affecting production, consumption and net emission rates of climate forcing trace gases. Net carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and methane (CH(4)) fluxes determine the radiative forcing contribution from these climate-sensitive ecosystems. Permafrost peatlands may be a mosaic of dry frozen hummocks, semi-thawed or perched sphagnum dominated areas, wet permafrost-free sedge dominated sites and open water ponds. We revisited estimates of climate forcing made for 1970 and 2000 for Stordalen Mire in northern Sweden and found the trend of increasing forcing continued into 2014. The Mire continued to transition from dry permafrost to sedge and open water areas, increasing by 100% and 35%, respectively, over the 45-year period, causing the net radiative forcing of Stordalen Mire to shift from negative to positive. This trend is driven by transitioning vegetation community composition, improved estimates of annual CO(2) and CH(4) exchange and a 22% increase in the IPCC's 100-year global warming potential (GWP_100) value for CH(4). These results indicate that discontinuous permafrost ecosystems, while still remaining a net overall sink of C, can become a positive feedback to climate change on decadal timescales. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 2)’.
format Text
author Varner, Ruth K.
Crill, Patrick M.
Frolking, Steve
McCalley, Carmody K.
Burke, Sophia A.
Chanton, Jeffrey P.
Holmes, M. Elizabeth
Saleska, Scott
Palace, Michael W.
author_facet Varner, Ruth K.
Crill, Patrick M.
Frolking, Steve
McCalley, Carmody K.
Burke, Sophia A.
Chanton, Jeffrey P.
Holmes, M. Elizabeth
Saleska, Scott
Palace, Michael W.
author_sort Varner, Ruth K.
title Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
title_short Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
title_full Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
title_fullStr Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
title_full_unstemmed Permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in Stordalen Mire from 1970 to 2014
title_sort permafrost thaw driven changes in hydrology and vegetation cover increase trace gas emissions and climate forcing in stordalen mire from 1970 to 2014
publisher The Royal Society
publishDate 2022
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646141/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34865532
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022
long_lat ENVELOPE(7.337,7.337,62.510,62.510)
geographic Stordalen
geographic_facet Stordalen
genre Active layer thickness
Northern Sweden
permafrost
genre_facet Active layer thickness
Northern Sweden
permafrost
op_source Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646141/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34865532
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022
op_rights © 2021 The Authors.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0022
container_title Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
container_volume 380
container_issue 2215
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