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Title: Nonlinear CO2 flux response to 7 years of experimentally induced permafrost thaw

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13661· OSTI ID:1351785
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
  3. Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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Abstract Rapid Arctic warming is expected to increase global greenhouse gas concentrations as permafrost thaw exposes immense stores of frozen carbon (C) to microbial decomposition. Permafrost thaw also stimulates plant growth, which could offset C loss. Using data from 7 years of experimental Air and Soil warming in moist acidic tundra, we show that Soil warming had a much stronger effect on CO 2 flux than Air warming. Soil warming caused rapid permafrost thaw and increased ecosystem respiration (R eco ), gross primary productivity ( GPP ), and net summer CO 2 storage ( NEE ). Over 7 years R eco , GPP , and NEE also increased in Control (i.e., ambient plots), but this change could be explained by slow thaw in Control areas. In the initial stages of thaw, R eco , GPP , and NEE increased linearly with thaw across all treatments, despite different rates of thaw. As thaw in Soil warming continued to increase linearly, ground surface subsidence created saturated microsites and suppressed R eco , GPP , and NEE . However R eco and GPP remained high in areas with large Eriophorum vaginatum biomass. In general NEE increased with thaw, but was more strongly correlated with plant biomass than thaw, indicating that higher R eco in deeply thawed areas during summer months was balanced by GPP . Summer CO 2 flux across treatments fit a single quadratic relationship that captured the functional response of CO 2 flux to thaw, water table depth, and plant biomass. These results demonstrate the importance of indirect thaw effects on CO 2 flux: plant growth and water table dynamics. Nonsummer R eco models estimated that the area was an annual CO 2 source during all years of observation. Nonsummer CO 2 loss in warmer, more deeply thawed soils exceeded the increases in summer GPP , and thawed tundra was a net annual CO 2 source.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0006982; SC0014085
OSTI ID:
1351785
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1373823
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 9; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 57 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

Tundra is a consistent source of CO 2 at a site with progressive permafrost thaw during 6 years of chamber and eddy covariance measurements : Tundra CO journal June 2017
Increased CO2 efflux due to long-term experimental summer warming and litter input in subarctic tundra – CO2 fluxes at snowmelt, in growing season, fall and winter journal September 2019
Interactions Between Land-Use Change and Climate-Carbon Cycle Feedbacks journal April 2018
Direct observation of permafrost degradation and rapid soil carbon loss in tundra journal July 2019
Below-ground plant traits influence tundra plant acquisition of newly thawed permafrost nitrogen journal September 2018
Increasing canopy photosynthesis in rice can be achieved without a large increase in water use—A model based on free‐air CO 2 enrichment journal December 2017
Biotic responses buffer warming-induced soil organic carbon loss in Arctic tundra journal June 2018
Ecosystem carbon response of an Arctic peatland to simulated permafrost thaw journal February 2019
Model parameterization to represent processes at unresolved scales and changing properties of evolving systems journal January 2020
Mycobiont contribution to tundra plant acquisition of permafrost‐derived nitrogen journal January 2020
Partitioning net ecosystem exchange of CO 2 on the pedon scale in the Lena River Delta, Siberia journal January 2019
High mesophyll conductance in the high-yielding rice cultivar Takanari quantified with the combined gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements under free-air CO2 enrichment text January 2019
High mesophyll conductance in the high-yielding rice cultivar Takanari quantified with the combined gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements under free-air CO 2 enrichment journal July 2019
Divergent patterns of experimental and model-derived permafrost ecosystem carbon dynamics in response to Arctic warming journal October 2018
Denitrifiers, nitrogen-fixing bacteria and N2O soil gas flux in high Arctic ice-wedge polygon cryosols journal April 2019
Soil moisture and hydrology projections of the permafrost region – a model intercomparison journal January 2020
Species interactions and distinct microbial communities in high Arctic permafrost affected cryosols are associated with the CH 4 and CO 2 gas fluxes journal July 2019

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Arctic
carbon
ecosystem respiration
experimental warming
gross primary productivity
net ecosystem exchange
permafrost
thaw
tundra