liuzh811/PermafrostCarbonCycle: permafrost

This repository was created to store data and codes used for Liu et al., (2022) Respiratory loss during late-growing season determines the net carbon dioxide sink in northern permafrost regions. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33293-x. Key results: (1) This study challenges the notion that northern high latitude permafrost regions are becoming a net source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere with global warming. (2) On the contrary, we find that the permafrost tundra region has become a strong CO2 sink and grown at a faster rate than the boreal forest biome since the 1980's, shifting from near-neutral conditions to a net ecosystem carbon sink around the turn of the century. (3) The permafrost tundra region is also a strong contributor to the global terrestrial carbon sink, which continues to keep pace in offsetting rising atmospheric CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning that contribute to global warming. (4) We find that the primary mechanism for the regional carbon sink is enhanced CO2 uptake in the early growing season, which is outpacing late-season carbon emissions. (5) Our findings weaken the view of northern forests as a future carbon sink and point to the need for global earth system models to better represent respiration processes affecting carbon sink activity and climate feedbacks.