Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Biogeophysical feedbacks enhance the Arctic terrestrial carbon sink in regional Earth system dynamics
SMHI, Research Department, Climate research - Rossby Centre.
Show others and affiliations
2014 (English)In: Biogeosciences, ISSN 1726-4170, E-ISSN 1726-4189, Vol. 11, no 19, p. 5503-5519Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Continued warming of the Arctic will likely accelerate terrestrial carbon (C) cycling by increasing both uptake and release of C. Yet, there are still large uncertainties in modelling Arctic terrestrial ecosystems as a source or sink of C. Most modelling studies assessing or projecting the future fate of C exchange with the atmosphere are based on either stand-alone process-based models or coupled climate-C cycle general circulation models, and often disregard biogeophysical feedbacks of land-surface changes to the atmosphere. To understand how biogeophysical feedbacks might impact on both climate and the C budget in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, we apply the regional Earth system model RCA-GUESS over the CORDEX-Arctic domain. The model is forced with lateral boundary conditions from an EC-Earth CMIP5 climate projection under the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario. We perform two simulations, with or without interactive vegetation dynamics respectively, to assess the impacts of biogeophysical feedbacks. Both simulations indicate that Arctic terrestrial ecosystems will continue to sequester C with an increased uptake rate until the 2060-2070s, after which the C budget will return to a weak C sink as increased soil respiration and biomass burning outpaces increased net primary productivity. The additional C sinks arising from biogeophysical feedbacks are approximately 8.5 Gt C, accounting for 22% of the total C sinks, of which 83.5% are located in areas of extant Arctic tundra. Two opposing feedback mechanisms, mediated by albedo and evapotranspiration changes respectively, contribute to this response. The albedo feedback dominates in the winter and spring seasons, amplifying the near-surface warming by up to 1.35 degrees C in spring, while the evapotranspiration feedback dominates in the summer months, and leads to a cooling of up to 0.81 degrees C. Such feedbacks stimulate vegetation growth due to an earlier onset of the growing season, leading to compositional changes in woody plants and vegetation redistribution.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2014. Vol. 11, no 19, p. 5503-5519
National Category
Climate Research
Research subject
Climate
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:smhi:diva-138DOI: 10.5194/bg-11-5503-2014ISI: 000344153200015OAI: oai:DiVA.org:smhi-138DiVA, id: diva2:801344
Available from: 2015-04-09 Created: 2015-03-26 Last updated: 2020-05-04Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(4719 kB)488 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 4719 kBChecksum SHA-512
e3ca44b62dd2fd6d332396f3d21a208656bf7d714351fab7b2d8bb7999ee4df5aa765de3bf485a8490fbbb35a39eae16eed5942a462035250318237574dfaec8
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Jansson, ChristerSamuelsson, Patrick

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Jansson, ChristerSamuelsson, Patrick
By organisation
Climate research - Rossby Centre
In the same journal
Biogeosciences
Climate Research

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 488 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 1026 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf