Abstract
The carbon (C) balance of permafrost regions is predicted to be extremely sensitive to climatic changes1,2,3. Major uncertainties exist in the rate of permafrost thaw and associated C emissions (33–508 Pg C or 0.04–1.69 °C by 2100; refs 2, 3) and plant C uptake. In the High Arctic, semi-deserts retain unique soil–plant–permafrost interactions4,5 and heterogeneous soil C pools6 (>12 Pg C; ref. 7). Owing to its coastal proximity, marked changes are expected for High Arctic tundra8. With declining summer sea-ice cover9, these systems are simultaneously exposed to rising temperatures9, increases in precipitation10 and permafrost degradation11. Here we show, using measurements of tundra–atmosphere C fluxes and soil C sources (14C) at a long-term climate change experiment in northwest Greenland, that warming decreased the summer CO2 sink strength of semi-deserts by up to 55%. In contrast, warming combined with wetting increased the CO2 sink strength by an order of magnitude. Further, wetting while relocating recently assimilated plant C into the deep soil decreased old C loss compared with the warming-only treatment. Consequently, the High Arctic has the potential to remain a strong C sink even as the rest of the permafrost region transitions to a net C source as a result of future global warming.
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Change history
09 December 2013
In the version of this Letter originally published, in the legend for Fig. 2b, the label for Irrigation should have been 'W; 4 °C × W'. This error has now been corrected in all versions of the Letter.
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Acknowledgements
This work was made possible by assistance from US Air Force Base Thule, Greenland, CH2M Hill Polar Services, and the KCCAMS laboratory. We thank all research assistants: A. Stills, D. S. Lindsey, J. Thomas, J. Yi and M. Ruacho, and research engineer C. Lett. This work was financially supported by the US National Science Foundation (ARC-0909514 to C.I.C. and ARC-0909538 to J.M.W.) and the European Research Council (FP/2007-2013, ERC Grant Agreement no. 202835) to U.S.
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J.M.W. and C.I.C. conceived and designed the experiment. M.L., X.X. and C.I.C. processed and analysed radiocarbon samples. M.L. performed research and analysed radiocarbon and Reco data. U.S. and K.M. analysed NEE data. All authors commented on the analysis and presentation of the data and were involved in the writing.
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Lupascu, M., Welker, J., Seibt, U. et al. High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming. Nature Clim Change 4, 51–55 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2058
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