Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska
A review
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19568336 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas A Douglas (0000-0003-1314-1905, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory), Miriam C Jones (0000-0002-6650-7619, United States Geological Survey), C A Hiemstra (0000-0003-3038-0430, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory), J R Arnold (0000-0002-9732-0179, United States Army Corps of Engineers) |
| Editors | Joel D Blum (0000-0001-5389-8633) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Elementa Science of the Anthropocene (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2325-1026 • E-ISSN: 2325-1026 |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.12952/journal.elementa.000032 |
| OpenAlex | W1997529775 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 170 |
Boreal ecosystems store large quantities of carbon but are increasingly vulnerable to carbon loss due to disturbance and climate warming. The boreal region in Alaska and Canada, largely underlain by discontinuous permafrost, presents a challenging landscape for itemizing carbon sources and sinks in soil and vegetation. The roles of fire, forest succession, and the presence (or absence) of permafrost on carbon cycle, vegetation, and hydrologic processes have been the focus of multidisciplinary research in boreal ecosystems for the past 20 years. However, projections of a warming future climate, an increase in fire severity and extent, and the potential degradation of permafrost could lead to major landscape and carbon cycle changes over the next 20 to 50 years. To assist land managers in interior Alaska in adapting and managing for potential changes in the carbon cycle we developed this review paper by incorporating an overview of the climate, ecosystem processes, vegetation, and soil regimes. Our objective is to provide a synthesis of the most current carbon storage estimates and measurements to guide policy and land management decisions on how to best manage carbon sources and sinks. We surveyed estimates of aboveground and belowground carbon stocks for interior Alaska boreal ecosystems and summarized methane and carbon dioxide fluxes. These data have been converted into similar units to facilitate comparison across ecosystem compartments. We identify potential changes in the carbon cycle with climate change and human disturbance. A novel research question is how compounding disturbances affect carbon sources and sinks associated with boreal ecosystem processes. Finally, we provide recommendations to address the challenges facing land managers in efforts to manage carbon cycle processes. The results of this study can be used for carbon cycle management in other locations within the boreal biome which encompasses a broad distribution from 45° to 83° north
Boreal · Boreal ecosystem · Carbon cycle · Carbon dioxide · Carbon sequestration · Carbon sink · Climate change · Ecosystem · Global warming · Greenhouse gas · Permafrost · Soil carbon · Soil water · Taiga · Climate change and permafrost · Cryospheric studies and observations · Environmental Science · Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology · Ecology · Geology · Soil Science
Machine learning analyses of remote sensing measurements establish strong relationships between vegetation and snow depth in the boreal forest of Interior Alaska
Lidar-derived estimates of boreal shrub biomass in Southcentral Alaska
Linking repeat lidar with Landsat products for large scale quantification of fire-induced permafrost thaw settlement in interior Alaska
Combining a climate-permafrost model with fine resolution remote sensor products to quantify active-layer thickness at local scales
Alaskan palaeosols in modern times
Cryostratigraphy of late Pleistocene syngenetic permafrost (yedoma) in northern Alaska, Itkillik River exposure
Wildfire in the Taiga of Alaska
Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change
Evidence and Implications of Recent Climate Change in Northern Alaska and Other Arctic Regions
Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981 to 1991
Disappearing Arctic Lakes
Plant community responses to experimental warming across the tundra biome
Modern Global Climate Change
Forests and Climate Change
Increasing River Discharge to the Arctic Ocean
Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region
Role of Land-Surface Changes in Arctic Summer Warming
Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change
A Century of Climate Change for Fairbanks, Alaska
The impact of the permafrost carbon feedback on global climate
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate
Modeling the effects of fire severity and climate warming on active layer thickness and soil carbon storage of black spruce forests across the landscape in interior Alaska
Edaphic and microclimatic controls over permafrost response to fire in interior Alaska
Soil carbon in the Arctic and the permafrost carbon feedback
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |