GREENCYCLESII

The subject of this particular project is the stability and resilience of permafrost carbon.

Permafrost in high northern latitudes contains large amounts of soil organic matter in peatland, loess, non-peatland soils, and alluvial deposits. This region is predicted to warm much faster than the global mean, potentially making permafrost soils a major future source of CO2 and CH4. This project will focus on modelling the relationships between precipitation changes and CH4 emissions, specifically through improving current models to take into account the effects of changing drainage basin hydrology and permafrost degradation. Predicted annual variability in methane emissions will be compared with top-down estimates of high latitude wetland fluxes from satellite observations and inverse models. This will enable the model to be evaluated and improve understanding of the relative controls on the interannual CH4 growth rate by arctic lake and floodplain ecosystems.