Permafrost and Climate Change: Carbon Cycle Feedbacks From the Warming Arctic

Edward A.G. Schuur, Benjamin W. Abbott, Roisin Commane, Jessica Ernakovich, Eugenie Euskirchen, Gustaf Hugelius, Guido Grosse, Miriam Jones, Charlie Koven, Victor Leshyk, David Lawrence, Michael M. Loranty, Marguerite Mauritz, David Olefeldt, Susan Natali, Heidi Rodenhizer, Verity Salmon, Christina Schädel, Jens Strauss, Claire TreatMerritt Turetsky

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

115 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rapid Arctic environmental change affects the entire Earth system as thawing permafrost ecosystems release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Understanding how much permafrost carbon will be released, over what time frame, and what the relative emissions of carbon dioxide and methane will be is key for understanding the impact on global climate. In addition, the response of vegetation in a warming climate has the potential to offset at least some of the accelerating feedback to the climate from permafrost carbon. Temperature, organic carbon, and ground ice are key regulators for determining the impact of permafrost ecosystems on the global carbon cycle. Together, these encompass services of permafrost relevant to global society as well as to the people living in the region and help to determine the landscape-level response of this region to a changing climate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)343-371
Number of pages29
JournalAnnual Review of Environment and Resources
Volume47
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Funding

Development of this paper was a result of workshops and synthesis as part of the NSF PLR Arctic System Science Research Networking Activities (RNA) Permafrost Carbon Network: Synthesizing Flux Observations for Benchmarking Model Projections of Permafrost Carbon Exchange (2019-2023) (grant 1931333). All authors are members of the Permafrost Carbon Network Steering Committee or are permafrost synthesis project leads.

Keywords

  • Arctic
  • boreal
  • climate change
  • global carbon cycle
  • permafrost carbon
  • terrestrial ecosystems
  • tundra

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