NCEAS Working Groups
Vulnerability of carbon in permafrost: Pool size and potential effects on the climate system
Project Description
Ecosystem responses that cause carbon loss to the atmosphere in a warming climate could greatly accelerate climate change during this century. Potentially vulnerable carbon pools that currently contain hundreds of billion tons of carbon could be destabilized through global warming and land use change. Some of the most vulnerable pools on land and oceans are: soil carbon in permafrost, soil carbon in high and low-latitude wetlands, biomass-carbon in forests, methane hydrates in the coastal zone, and ocean carbon concentrated by the biological pump. The risk of large losses from these pools is not well known, and is not included in most climate simulations. Preliminary analyses indicate a risk over the coming century that may be larger than 200 ppm of atmospheric CO2, rivaling the expected release from fossil fuel combustion. This proposal will quantify the carbon content of the vulnerable pools in permafrost soils and analyze the risk of large releases of carbon from these pools over this century.

Principal Investigator(s)
Christopher B. Field, Josep G. Canadell
Project Dates
Start: March 28, 2006
End: December 6, 2006
completed
Participants
- James Bockheim
- University of Wisconsin
- Josep G. Canadell
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- Susanne Euskirchen
- University of Alaska, Fairbanks
- Christopher B. Field
- Carnegie Institution
- Sergey V. Goryachkin
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- Stefan Hagemann
- Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemisty
- Peter Kuhry
- Stockholm University
- Peter Lafleur
- Trent University
- Glen MacDonald
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Galina Mazhitova
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- Frederick Nelson
- University of Delaware
- Annette Rinke
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
- Daniel Riseborough
- Unknown
- Vladimir Romanovsky
- University of Alaska
- Edward A.G. Schuur
- University of Florida
- Nikolay (Kolia) Shiklomanov
- University of Delaware
- Charles Tarnocai
- Sergey Venevsky
- Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
- Sergei Zimov
- Russian Academy of Sciences
Products
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Journal Article / 2008
Vulnerability of permafrost carbon to climate change: Implications for the global carbon cycle
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Journal Article / 2009
Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region