Carbon exchange and permafrost collapse: implications for a changing climate

Abstract

With a warmer climate, the wetlands of Interior Alaska may experience more frequent or extensive stand-replacing fires and permafrost degradation. This, in turn may change the primary factors controlling carbon emissions. I measured carbon exchange along a moisture transect from the center of a sphagnum-dominated bog into a burned forest (2001 Survey Line Fire) on the Tanana River Floodplain. Both the bog and the surrounding burn were sinks for CO₂, and the bog was a CH₄ source in the abnormally dry summer of 2004. Thermokarst and subsiding soils were observed on the margin of the bog in the three years since the fire, increasing the anaerobic portion of the soil landscape. I observed the greatest variation in carbon fluxes in this portion of the transect. I conclude that permafrost collapse is altering the pattern of emissions from this landscape. I tracked historical changes in vegetation, hydrology and fire at this site through macrofossil, charcoal and diatom analysis of peat cores. The paleoecological record suggests that fire mediates permafrost collapse in this system. This study indicates that future changes in temperature and precipitation will alter carbon cycling and vegetation patterns across this boreal landscape.