Earth System Dynamics Discussions
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161
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2011-02-17
Soil temperature response to 21st century global warming: the role of and some implications for peat carbon in thawing permafrost soils in North America
D. Wisser
dominik.wisser@unh.edu
S. Marchenko
J. Talbot
C. Treat
S. Frolking
Complex Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
Geophysical Institute, Permafrost Lab, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
Northern peatlands contain a large terrestrial carbon pool that plays an
important role in the Earth's carbon cycle. A considerable fraction of this
carbon pool is currently in permafrost and is biogeochemically relatively
inert; this will change with increasing soil temperatures as a result of
climate warming in the 21st century. We use a geospatially explicit
representation of peat areas and peat depth from a recently-compiled
database and a geothermal model to estimate northern North America soil
temperature responses to predicted changes in air temperature. We find that,
despite a widespread decline in the areas classified as permafrost, soil
temperatures in peatlands respond more slowly to increases in air
temperature owing to the insulating properties of peat. We estimate that an
additional 670 km<sup>3</sup> of peat soils in North America, containing
~33 Pg C, could be seasonally thawed by the end of the century, representing
~20% of the total peat volume in Alaska and Canada. Warming
conditions result in a lengthening of the soil thaw period by ~40
days, averaged over the model domain. These changes have potentially
important implications for the carbon balance of peat soils.
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