Permafrost Carbon: Progress on Understanding Stocks and Fluxes Across Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems
Loading...
Links to Files
Collections
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2024-02-26
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Treat, Claire C., Anna-Maria Virkkala, Eleanor Burke, Lori Bruhwiler, Abhishek Chatterjee, Joshua B. Fisher, Josh Hashemi, et al. "Permafrost Carbon: Progress on Understanding Stocks and Fluxes Across Northern Terrestrial Ecosystems." Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129, no. 3 (2024): e2023JG007638. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JG007638.
Rights
This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Public Domain Mark 1.0
Subjects
Abstract
Significant progress in permafrost carbon science made over the past decades include the identification of vast permafrost carbon stocks, the development of new pan-Arctic permafrost maps, an increase in terrestrial measurement sites for CO₂ and methane fluxes, and important factors affecting carbon cycling, including vegetation changes, periods of soil freezing and thawing, wildfire, and other disturbance events. Process-based modeling studies now include key elements of permafrost carbon cycling and advances in statistical modeling and inverse modeling enhance understanding of permafrost region C budgets. By combining existing data syntheses and model outputs, the permafrost region is likely a wetland methane source and small terrestrial ecosystem CO₂ sink with lower net CO₂ uptake toward higher latitudes, excluding wildfire emissions. For 2002–2014, the strongest CO₂ sink was located in western Canada (median: −52 g C ⁻² y ⁻¹) and smallest sinks in Alaska, Canadian tundra, and Siberian tundra (medians: −5 to −9 g C m ⁻² y ⁻¹). Eurasian regions had the largest median wetland methane fluxes (16–18 g CH4 m ⁻² y ⁻¹). Quantifying the regional scale carbon balance remains challenging because of high spatial and temporal variability and relatively low density of observations. More accurate permafrost region carbon fluxes require: (a) the development of better maps characterizing wetlands and dynamics of vegetation and disturbances, including abrupt permafrost thaw; (b) the establishment of new year-round CO₂ and methane flux sites in underrepresented areas; and (c) improved models that better represent important permafrost carbon cycle dynamics, including non-growing season emissions and disturbance effects.