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Variability in the sensitivity among model simulations of permafrost and carbon dynamics in the permafrost region between 1960 and 2009

Journal Article · · Global Biogeochemical Cycles
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005405· OSTI ID:1324174
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  1. Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. Normal Univ., Shanghai (China)
  5. Stockholm Univ., Stockholm (Sweden)
  6. Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  7. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  8. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  9. Unite Mixte de Rechereche CNRS/Meteo-France (UMR 3589), Toulouse Cedex (France)
  10. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  11. Univ. of Victoria, Victoria, BC (Canada)
  12. CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Univ.-Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, Grenoble (France)
  13. Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam (Germany); Beijing Normal Univ., Beijing (China)
  14. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama (Japan)
  15. Lund Univ., Lund (Sweden)
  16. GAME, Unite Mixte de Recherche CNRS/Meteo-France (UMR 3589), Toulouse Cedex (France)
  17. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  18. CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  19. Univ.-Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, Grenoble (France); Irstea, Villeurbanne Cedex (France)
  20. Beijing Normal Univ., Beijing (China)
  21. Univ.-Grenoble Alpes/CNRS, Grenoble (France)
  22. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  23. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  24. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  25. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
A significant portion of the large amount of carbon (C) currently stored in soils of the permafrost region in the Northern Hemisphere has the potential to be emitted as the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 under a warmer climate. In this study we evaluated the variability in the sensitivity of permafrost and C in recent decades among land surface model simulations over the permafrost region between 1960 and 2009. The 15 model simulations all predict a loss of near-surface permafrost (within 3 m) area over the region, but there are large differences in the magnitude of the simulated rates of loss among the models (0.2 to 58.8 × 103 km2 yr–1). Sensitivity simulations indicated that changes in air temperature largely explained changes in permafrost area, although interactions among changes in other environmental variables also played a role. All of the models indicate that both vegetation and soil C storage together have increased by 156 to 954 Tg C yr–1 between 1960 and 2009 over the permafrost region even though model analyses indicate that warming alone would decrease soil C storage. Increases in gross primary production (GPP) largely explain the simulated increases in vegetation and soil C. The sensitivity of GPP to increases in atmospheric CO2 was the dominant cause of increases in GPP across the models, but comparison of simulated GPP trends across the 1982–2009 period with that of a global GPP data set indicates that all of the models overestimate the trend in GPP. Disturbance also appears to be an important factor affecting C storage, as models that consider disturbance had lower increases in C storage than models that did not consider disturbance. Furthermore, to improve the modeling of C in the permafrost region, there is the need for the modeling community to standardize structural representation of permafrost and carbon dynamics among models that are used to evaluate the permafrost C feedback and for the modeling and observational communities to jointly develop data sets and methodologies to more effectively benchmark models.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1324174
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1439996
Journal Information:
Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Journal Name: Global Biogeochemical Cycles Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 30; ISSN 0886-6236
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Permafrost thawing puts the frozen carbon at risk over the Tibetan Plateau journal May 2020
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Year-round simulated methane emissions from a permafrost ecosystem in Northeast Siberia journal January 2018
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ORCHIDEE-MICT (v8.4.1), a land surface model for the high latitudes: model description and validation journal January 2018
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Evaluation of air–soil temperature relationships simulated by land surface models during winter across the permafrost region journal January 2016
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The European mountain cryosphere: a review of its current state, trends, and future challenges journal January 2018
Soil moisture and hydrology projections of the permafrost region – a model intercomparison journal January 2020

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