Large CO2 and CH4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska
Abstract
©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The few prethaw observations of tundra carbon fluxes suggest that there may be large spring releases, but little is known about the scale and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon. To address these questions, we combined ecosystem eddy flux measurements from two towers near Barrow, Alaska, with mechanistic soil-core thawing experiment. During a 2 week period prior to snowmelt in 2014, large fluxes were measured, reducing net summer uptake of CO 2 by 46% and adding 6% to cumulative CH 4 emissions. Emission pulses were linked to unique rain-on-snow events enhancing soil cracking. Controlled laboratory experiment revealed that as surface ice thaws, an immediate, large pulse of trapped gases is emitted. These results suggest that the Arctic CO 2 and CH 4 spring pulse is a delayed release of biogenic gas production from the previous fall and that the pulse can be large enough to offset a significant fraction of the moderate Arctic tundra carbon sink.
- Authors:
-
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy and Resources Group
- Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States). Biological Systems Engineering Dept.
- Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Water and Environmental Research Center
- Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Geophysical Inst.
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Environmental Science Division
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Division
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Contributing Org.:
- Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States); Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1352811
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1379682
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 44; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Arctic; tundra; carbon fluxes; thaw; pulse; eddy covariance
Citation Formats
Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Torn, Margaret S., Wu, Yuxin, Billesbach, Dave P., Liljedahl, Anna K., Kneafsey, Timothy J., Romanovsky, Vladimir E., Cook, David R., and Wullschleger, Stan D. Large CO2 and CH4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2016GL071220.
Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Torn, Margaret S., Wu, Yuxin, Billesbach, Dave P., Liljedahl, Anna K., Kneafsey, Timothy J., Romanovsky, Vladimir E., Cook, David R., & Wullschleger, Stan D. Large CO2 and CH4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071220
Raz-Yaseef, Naama, Torn, Margaret S., Wu, Yuxin, Billesbach, Dave P., Liljedahl, Anna K., Kneafsey, Timothy J., Romanovsky, Vladimir E., Cook, David R., and Wullschleger, Stan D. 2016.
"Large CO2 and CH4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071220. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1352811.
@article{osti_1352811,
title = {Large CO2 and CH4 emissions from polygonal tundra during spring thaw in northern Alaska},
author = {Raz-Yaseef, Naama and Torn, Margaret S. and Wu, Yuxin and Billesbach, Dave P. and Liljedahl, Anna K. and Kneafsey, Timothy J. and Romanovsky, Vladimir E. and Cook, David R. and Wullschleger, Stan D.},
abstractNote = {©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The few prethaw observations of tundra carbon fluxes suggest that there may be large spring releases, but little is known about the scale and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon. To address these questions, we combined ecosystem eddy flux measurements from two towers near Barrow, Alaska, with mechanistic soil-core thawing experiment. During a 2 week period prior to snowmelt in 2014, large fluxes were measured, reducing net summer uptake of CO 2 by 46% and adding 6% to cumulative CH 4 emissions. Emission pulses were linked to unique rain-on-snow events enhancing soil cracking. Controlled laboratory experiment revealed that as surface ice thaws, an immediate, large pulse of trapped gases is emitted. These results suggest that the Arctic CO 2 and CH 4 spring pulse is a delayed release of biogenic gas production from the previous fall and that the pulse can be large enough to offset a significant fraction of the moderate Arctic tundra carbon sink.},
doi = {10.1002/2016GL071220},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1352811},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
issn = {0094-8276},
number = 1,
volume = 44,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}
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