Siberian Ecosystems as Drivers of Cryospheric Climate Feedbacks in the Terrestrial Arctic

Michael M Loranty,Anna C Talucci,Heather Kropp,Elizabeth E Webb,Heather D Alexander

doi:10.3389/fclim.2021.730943

Michael M Loranty, Anna C Talucci + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.730943

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Abstract

Climate warming is altering the persistence, timing, and distribution of permafrost and snow cover across the terrestrial northern hemisphere. These cryospheric changes have numerous consequences, not least of which are positive climate feedbacks associated with lowered albedo related to declining snow cover, and greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost thaw. Given the large land areas affected, these feedbacks have the potential to impact climate on a global scale. Understanding the magnitudes and rates of changes in permafrost and snow cover is therefore integral for process understanding and quantification of climate change. However, while permafrost and snow cover are largely controlled by climate, their distributions and climate impacts are influenced by numerous interrelated ecosystem processes that also respond to climate and are highly heterogeneous in space and time. In this perspective we highlight ongoing and emerging changes in ecosystem processes that mediate how permafrost and snow cover interact with climate. We focus on larch forests in northeastern Siberia, which are expansive, ecologically unique, and studied less than other Arctic and subarctic regions. Emerging fire regime changes coupled with high ground ice have the potential to foster rapid regional changes in vegetation and permafrost thaw, with important climate feedback implications.

Highlights

Amplified climate warming across the Arctic is causing widespread terrestrial cryospheric change in the form of altered snow cover dynamics and permafrost thaw, both with the potential to act as globally important climate feedbacks (Flanner et al, 2011; Schuur et al, 2015; Meredith et al, 2019)
Eastern Siberia contains a unique combination of fire-prone larch forests and ice-rich yedoma permafrost
The ability of fire to alter vegetation and permafrost conditions over relatively short time scales has the potential to influence climate feedbacks associated with albedo change and permafrost thaw

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Amplified climate warming across the Arctic is causing widespread terrestrial cryospheric change in the form of altered snow cover dynamics and permafrost thaw, both with the potential to act as globally important climate feedbacks (Flanner et al, 2011; Schuur et al, 2015; Meredith et al, 2019). There has been less work focused on boreal canopy-snow interactions, and previous fire focused work occurs mostly in the discontinuous and sporadic permafrost zones where permafrost may not be present Absent from this emerging body of research are analyses focused on ecosystem-cryosphere interactions in the Siberian Arctic and subarctic (Metcalfe et al, 2018), despite a unique combination of ecological and cryospheric conditions and extensive areal extent that makes it regionally important. In this perspective, we highlight and synthesize recent research and emerging evidence illustrating the potential for ecosystem processes to drive rapid and widespread cryospheric change across central and eastern Siberia, with particular focus on larch (Larix spp.) dominated forests. Low seed availability or failure to germinate after fire can result in larch recruitment failure and forest transition to alternative vegetation cover types, including shrublands and grasslands (Cai et al, 2013, 2018; Chu et al, 2017)

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DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT