Vulnerability of carbon in permafrost: Pool size and potential effects on the climate system
Principal Investigators:
Christopher B. Field, and Josep G. Canadell
Ecosystem responses that cause carbon loss to the atmosphere in a warming climate could greatly accelerate climate change during this century. Potentially vulnerable carbon pools that currently contain hundreds of billion tons of carbon could be destabilized through global warming and land use change. Some of the most vulnerable pools on land and oceans are: soil carbon in permafrost, soil carbon in high and low-latitude wetlands, biomass-carbon in forests, methane hydrates in the coastal zone, and ocean carbon concentrated by the biological pump.... more
Ecosystem responses that cause carbon loss to the atmosphere in a warming climate could greatly accelerate climate change during this century. Potentially vulnerable carbon pools that currently contain hundreds of billion tons of carbon could be destabilized through global warming and land use change. Some of the most vulnerable pools on land and oceans are: soil carbon in permafrost, soil carbon in high and low-latitude wetlands, biomass-carbon in forests, methane hydrates in the coastal zone, and ocean carbon concentrated by the biological pump. The risk of large losses from these pools is not well known, and is not included in most climate simulations. Preliminary analyses indicate a risk over the coming century that may be larger than 200 ppm of atmospheric CO2, rivaling the expected release from fossil fuel combustion. This proposal will quantify the carbon content of the vulnerable pools in permafrost soils and analyze the risk of large releases of carbon from these pools over this century.
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Participants and Meetings

Working Group Participants
Activity | Dates | Further Information |
---|---|---|
Working Group | 28th—30th March 2006 | Participant List |
Working Group | 4th—6th December 2006 | Participant List |
Participant Contact Information
James Bockheim | bockheim@wisc.edu | University of Wisconsin |
Josep G. Canadell | pep.canadell@csiro.au | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) |
Susanne Euskirchen | seeuskirchen@alaska.edu | University of Alaska, Fairbanks |
Christopher B. Field | cfield@globalecology.stanford.edu | Carnegie Institution |
Sergey V. Goryachkin | pedology@igras.geonet.ru | Russian Academy of Sciences |
Stefan Hagemann | hagemann@dkrz.de | Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology |
Peter Kuhry | peter.kuhry@natgeo.su.se | Stockholm University |
Peter Lafleur | plafleur@trentu.ca | Trent University |
Glen MacDonald | macdonal@geog.ucla.edu | University of California, Los Angeles |
Galina Mazhitova | Russian Academy of Sciences | |
Frederick Nelson | fnelson@udel.edu | University of Delaware |
Annette Rinke | arinke@awi-potsdam.de | Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research |
Daniel Riseborough | drisebor@NRCan.gc.ca | Unknown |
Edward A.G. Schuur | ted.schuur@nau.edu | University of Florida |
Charles Tarnocai | tarnocaict@agr.gc.ca | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada |
Sergey Venevsky | sergey.venevsky@metoffice.gov.uk | Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research |
Sergei Zimov | sazimov55@mail.ru | Russian Academy of Sciences |
Vladimir Romanovsky | ffver@uaf.edu | University of Alaska |
Nikolay (Kolia) Shiklomanov | shiklom@udel.edu | University of Delaware |
Products: Publications, Reports, Datasets, Presentations, Visualizations
Type | Products of NCEAS Research |
---|---|
Journal Article | Schuur, Edward A.G.; Bockheim, James; Canadell, Josep G.; Euskirchen, Susanne; Field, Christopher B.; Goryachkin, Sergey V.; Hagemann, Stefan; Kuhry, Peter; Lafleur, Peter; Lee, Hanna; Mazhitova, Galina; Nelson, Frederick; Rinke, Annette; Romanovsky, Vladimir; Shiklomanov, Nikolay (Kolia); Tarnocai, Charles; Venevsky, Sergey; Vogel, Jason G.; Zimov, Sergei. 2008. Vulnerability of permafrost carbon to climate change: Implications for the global carbon cycle . BioScience. Vol: 58(8). Pages 701-714. |
Journal Article | Tarnocai, Charles; Canadell, Josep G.; Schuur, Edward A.G.; Kuhry, Peter; Mazhitova, Galina; Zimov, Sergei. 2009. Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region. Global Biochemical Cycles. Vol: 23(2). Pages 1-11. (Online version) |
"Vulnerability of carbon in permafrost: Pool size and potential effects on the climate system" is project ID: 9781