Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope
Abstract
The continued warming of the Arctic could release vast stores of carbon into the atmosphere from high-latitude ecosystems, especially from thawing permafrost. Increasing uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) by vegetation during longer growing seasons may partially offset such release of carbon. However, evidence of significant net annual release of carbon from site-level observations and model simulations across tundra ecosystems has been inconclusive. To address this knowledge gap, we combined top-down observations of atmospheric CO2 concentration enhancements from aircraft and a tall tower, which integrate ecosystem exchange over large regions, with bottom-up observed CO2 fluxes from tundra environments and found that the Alaska North Slope is not a consistent net source nor net sink of CO2 to the atmosphere (ranging from ₋6 to +6 Tg C yr-1 for 2012–2017). Our analysis suggests that significant biogenic CO2 fluxes from unfrozen terrestrial soils, and likely inland waters, during the early cold season (September–December) are major factors in determining the net annual carbon balance of the North Slope, implying strong sensitivity to the rapidly warming freeze-up period. At the regional level, we find no evidence of the previously reported large late-cold-season (January–April) CO2 emissions to the atmosphere during the study period. Despite the importancemore »
- Authors:
-
- Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States). Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States); San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK (United States)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Ministry for the Environment, Wellington (New Zealand)
- Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Lexington, MA (United States)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam (HZP), (Germany). German Research Centre for GeoSciences
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA (United States)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Tongji University, Shanghai (China)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States); Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)
- Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States). Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 2242470
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; NNX17AC61A; 1848620; NNX17AE75G; 80NSSC19M0209; NNH17ZDA001N-NIP; 80NM0018D0004; 1503912; 0632264
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Biogeosciences (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Biogeosciences (Online); Journal Volume: 19; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 1726-4189
- Publisher:
- Copernicus Publications, EGU
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Schiferl, Luke D., Watts, Jennifer D., Larson, Erik L., Arndt, Kyle A., Biraud, Sébastien C., Euskirchen, Eugénie S., Goodrich, Jordan P., Henderson, John M., Kalhori, Aram, McKain, Kathryn, Mountain, Marikate E., Munger, J. William, Oechel, Walter C., Sweeney, Colm, Yi, Yonghong, Zona, Donatella, and Commane, Róisín. Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.5194/bg-19-5953-2022.
Schiferl, Luke D., Watts, Jennifer D., Larson, Erik L., Arndt, Kyle A., Biraud, Sébastien C., Euskirchen, Eugénie S., Goodrich, Jordan P., Henderson, John M., Kalhori, Aram, McKain, Kathryn, Mountain, Marikate E., Munger, J. William, Oechel, Walter C., Sweeney, Colm, Yi, Yonghong, Zona, Donatella, & Commane, Róisín. Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5953-2022
Schiferl, Luke D., Watts, Jennifer D., Larson, Erik L., Arndt, Kyle A., Biraud, Sébastien C., Euskirchen, Eugénie S., Goodrich, Jordan P., Henderson, John M., Kalhori, Aram, McKain, Kathryn, Mountain, Marikate E., Munger, J. William, Oechel, Walter C., Sweeney, Colm, Yi, Yonghong, Zona, Donatella, and Commane, Róisín. Thu .
"Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5953-2022. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/2242470.
@article{osti_2242470,
title = {Using atmospheric observations to quantify annual biogenic carbon dioxide fluxes on the Alaska North Slope},
author = {Schiferl, Luke D. and Watts, Jennifer D. and Larson, Erik L. and Arndt, Kyle A. and Biraud, Sébastien C. and Euskirchen, Eugénie S. and Goodrich, Jordan P. and Henderson, John M. and Kalhori, Aram and McKain, Kathryn and Mountain, Marikate E. and Munger, J. William and Oechel, Walter C. and Sweeney, Colm and Yi, Yonghong and Zona, Donatella and Commane, Róisín},
abstractNote = {The continued warming of the Arctic could release vast stores of carbon into the atmosphere from high-latitude ecosystems, especially from thawing permafrost. Increasing uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) by vegetation during longer growing seasons may partially offset such release of carbon. However, evidence of significant net annual release of carbon from site-level observations and model simulations across tundra ecosystems has been inconclusive. To address this knowledge gap, we combined top-down observations of atmospheric CO2 concentration enhancements from aircraft and a tall tower, which integrate ecosystem exchange over large regions, with bottom-up observed CO2 fluxes from tundra environments and found that the Alaska North Slope is not a consistent net source nor net sink of CO2 to the atmosphere (ranging from ₋6 to +6 Tg C yr-1 for 2012–2017). Our analysis suggests that significant biogenic CO2 fluxes from unfrozen terrestrial soils, and likely inland waters, during the early cold season (September–December) are major factors in determining the net annual carbon balance of the North Slope, implying strong sensitivity to the rapidly warming freeze-up period. At the regional level, we find no evidence of the previously reported large late-cold-season (January–April) CO2 emissions to the atmosphere during the study period. Despite the importance of the cold-season CO2 emissions to the annual total, the interannual variability in the net CO2 flux is driven by the variability in growing season fluxes. During the growing season, the regional net CO2 flux is also highly sensitive to the distribution of tundra vegetation types throughout the North Slope. This study shows that quantification and characterization of year-round CO2 fluxes from the heterogeneous terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Arctic using both site-level and atmospheric observations are important to accurately project the Earth system response to future warming.},
doi = {10.5194/bg-19-5953-2022},
journal = {Biogeosciences (Online)},
number = 24,
volume = 19,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}
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