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Earlier snowmelt may lead to late season declines in plant productivity and carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra ecosystems

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
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  1. San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)
  2. Trent Univ., Peterborough, ON (Canada)
  3. Ghent Univ. (Belgium)
  4. San Diego State Univ., CA (United States)
  5. National Research Council (CNR), Firenze (Italy)
  6. LI-COR Biosciences, Lincoln, NE (Untied States); Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States)
  7. Univ. of Waikato, Hamilton (New Zealand)
  8. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States); Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
  9. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
  10. Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); Univ. of Montana, Missoula, MT (United States)
  11. Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
  12. Univ. of Montana, Missoula, MT (United States)
  13. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany); Univ. of Helsinki (Finland)
  14. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
  15. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark); Oulu University, Kuusamo (Finland)
  16. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark); Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk (Greenland)
  17. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark); Lund Univ. (Sweden)
  18. The Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel (The Netherlands)
  19. Research and Innovation Centre (Italy); RUDN University, Moscow (Russian Federation)
  20. Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States)
  21. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  22. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
  23. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  24. Univ. of Hamburg (Germany)
  25. Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam (Germany); Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany)
  26. GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam (Germany)
  27. Carleton Univ., Ottawa, ON (Canada)
  28. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  29. Univ. of Montreal, QC (Canada)
  30. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON (Canada)
  31. San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO2 sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June and July, but with lower net carbon sequestration and lower GPP in August. Although higher evapotranspiration (ET) can result in soil drying with the progression of the summer, we did not find significantly lower soil moisture with earlier snowmelt, nor evidence that water stress affected GPP in the late growing season. Our results suggest that the expected increased CO2 sequestration arising from Arctic warming and the associated increase in growing season length may not materialize if tundra ecosystems are not able to continue sequestering CO2 later in the season.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
European Union’s Horizon 2020; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Science Foundation (NSF); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1896686
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Figures / Tables (5)

Figure 1(p. 4)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 5)figure Figure 2
Table 1(p. 5)table Table 1
Figure 3(p. 6)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 8)figure Figure 4

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Climate sciences
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Environmental sciences