Carbon emission from Western Siberian inland waters

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Karlsson, Jan, Serikova, Svetlana, Vorobyev, Sergey N., Rocher-Ros, Gerard, Denfeld, Blaize A., Pokrovsky, Oleg S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap 2021
• Subjects: Climate Research; Klimatforskning; Environmental Sciences; Miljövetenskap; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; ob river; permafrost; Siberia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-180773; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21054-1

High-latitude regions play a key role in the carbon (C) cycle and climate system. An important question is the degree of mobilization and atmospheric release of vast soil C stocks, partly stored in permafrost, with amplified warming of these regions. A fraction of this C is exported to inland waters and emitted to the atmosphere, yet these losses are poorly constrained and seldom accounted for in assessments of high-latitude C balances. This is particularly relevant for Western Siberia, with its extensive peatland C stocks, which can be strongly sensitive to the ongoing changes in climate. Here we quantify C emission from inland waters, including the Ob’ River (Arctic’s largest watershed), across all permafrost zones of Western Siberia. We show that the inland water C emission is high (0.08–0.10 Pg C yr−1) and of major significance in the regional C cycle, largely exceeding (7–9 times) C export to the Arctic Ocean and reaching nearly half (35–50%) of the region’s land C uptake. This important role of C emission from inland waters highlights the need for coupled land–water studies to understand the contemporary C cycle and its response to warming.