Abstract
Arctic wetlands have been globally important carbon reservoirs throughout the past but climate change is threatening to shift their status to carbon sources. Increasing Arctic temperatures are depleting perennial snowpacks these wetlands depend upon as their hydrological inputs which is altering their environmental conditions and carbon cycles. The objective of this study is to investigate how the physical conditions of Arctic wetlands will be altered by climate change and what influence these changes will have on CO2 exchange. High spatial and temporal resolution biophysical data from a high Arctic wetland, collected over the growing season of 2015, was used for this analysis. The results from this study indicate that the wetland is at risk of thawing and drying out under a warmer climate regime. CO2 emissions were found to increase most significantly with increased air temperatures, while CO2 uptake increased with increases in solar radiation and soil moisture. Combined, these results suggest that CO2 production in the soil will increase while CO2 uptake will decrease in Arctic wetlands as climate change continues.
Highlights
The effects of climate change have been most drastic in the Arctic (Chapin et al, 1995; Weller et al, 1995; Overpeck et al, 1997; Crowley, 2011) and are occurring earlier than projections predicted (Crowley, 2011)
This research aimed to reduce the error caused by generalizing Arctic ecosystems from a few single sample locations by using a high spatial resolution of data over a substantial time period that encapsulatied the majority of the growth season
The importance of using a high spatial resolution of data was proven in this study from the clear heterogeneity of all the biophysical variables measured within the wet sedge
Summary
The effects of climate change have been most drastic in the Arctic (Chapin et al, 1995; Weller et al, 1995; Overpeck et al, 1997; Crowley, 2011) and are occurring earlier than projections predicted (Crowley, 2011). Along with warming surface temperatures, the 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report predicts that there will be increased summertime precipitation in the form of rainfall in the Arctic (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2013) These impacts have been found to be altering the composition of vegetation and the hydrological cycle in the Arctic, as well as reducing the snow cover duration and degrading permafrost (McEwing et al, 2015). Permafrost degradation is of major importance as permafrost holds significant amounts of carbon (Wagner et al, 2007; Olivas, 2010; IPCC, 2013) thereby connecting it to the exchange of trace gases in Arctic ecosystems (Overpeck et al, 1997) This carbon is at risk of being released from the thawing permafrost due to increased Arctic temperatures (Wagner et al, 2007; Sullivan et al, 2008; Knoblauch et al, 2013) which threatens to create a positive feedback effect to climate change (Weller et al, 1995). In addition to influencing the Arctic’s carbon storage, degrading permafrost has had impacts on northern construction, transportation, ecology, and hydrology (Overpeck et al, 1997)
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