| 1. |
- Abbott, Benjamin W., et al.
(författare)
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We Must Stop Fossil Fuel Emissions to Protect Permafrost Ecosystems
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Environmental Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-665X. ; 10
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change is an existential threat to the vast global permafrost domain. The diverse human cultures, ecological communities, and biogeochemical cycles of this tenth of the planet depend on the persistence of frozen conditions. The complexity, immensity, and remoteness of permafrost ecosystems make it difficult to grasp how quickly things are changing and what can be done about it. Here, we summarize terrestrial and marine changes in the permafrost domain with an eye toward global policy. While many questions remain, we know that continued fossil fuel burning is incompatible with the continued existence of the permafrost domain as we know it. If we fail to protect permafrost ecosystems, the consequences for human rights, biosphere integrity, and global climate will be severe. The policy implications are clear: the faster we reduce human emissions and draw down atmospheric CO2, the more of the permafrost domain we can save. Emissions reduction targets must be strengthened and accompanied by support for local peoples to protect intact ecological communities and natural carbon sinks within the permafrost domain. Some proposed geoengineering interventions such as solar shading, surface albedo modification, and vegetation manipulations are unproven and may exacerbate environmental injustice without providing lasting protection. Conversely, astounding advances in renewable energy have reopened viable pathways to halve human greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and effectively stop them well before 2050. We call on leaders, corporations, researchers, and citizens everywhere to acknowledge the global importance of the permafrost domain and work towards climate restoration and empowerment of Indigenous and immigrant communities in these regions.
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| 2. |
- Hambäck, Peter A., et al.
(författare)
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Tradeoffs and synergies in wetland multifunctionality : A scaling issue
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - Amsterdam : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 862
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wetland area in agricultural landscapes has been heavily reduced to gain land for crop production, but in recent years there is increased societal recognition of the negative consequences from wetland loss on nutrient retention, biodiversity and a range of other benefits to humans. The current trend is therefore to re-establish wetlands, often with an aim to achieve the simultaneous delivery of multiple ecosystem services, i.e., multifunctionality. Here we review the literature on key objectives used to motivate wetland re-establishment in temperate agricultural landscapes (provision of flow regulation, nutrient retention, climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation and cultural ecosystem services), and their relationships to environmental properties, in order to identify potential for tradeoffs and synergies concerning the development of multifunctional wetlands. Through this process, we find that there is a need for a change in scale from a focus on single wetlands to wetlandscapes (multiple neighboring wetlands including their catchments and surrounding landscape features) if multiple societal and environmental goals are to be achieved. Finally, we discuss the key factors to be considered when planning for re-establishment of wetlands that can support achievement of a wide range of objectives at the landscape scale.
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| 3. |
- Jackson, Robert B., et al.
(författare)
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The Ecology of Soil Carbon : Pools, Vulnerabilities, and Biotic and Abiotic Controls
- 2017
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Ingår i: Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. - : Annual Reviews. - 1543-592X .- 1545-2069. ; 48, s. 419-445
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Soil organic matter (SOM) anchors global terrestrial productivity and food and fiber supply. SOM retains water and soil nutrients and stores more global carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined. SOM is also decomposed by microbes, returning CO2, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, soil carbon stocks have been widely lost or degraded through land use changes and unsustainable forest and agricultural practices. To understand its structure and function and to maintain and restore SOM, we need a better appreciation of soil organic carbon (SOC) saturation capacity and the retention of above-and belowground inputs in SOM. Our analysis suggests root inputs are approximately five times more likely than an equivalent mass of aboveground litter to be stabilized as SOM. Microbes, particularly fungi and bacteria, and soil faunal food webs strongly influence SOM decomposition at shallower depths, whereas mineral associations drive stabilization at depths greater than similar to 30 cm. Global uncertainties in the amounts and locations of SOM include the extent of wetland, peatland, and permafrost systems and factors that constrain soil depths, such as shallow bedrock. In consideration of these uncertainties, we estimate global SOC stocks at depths of 2 and 3 m to be between 2,270 and 2,770 Pg, respectively, but could be as much as 700 Pg smaller. Sedimentary deposits deeper than 3 m likely contain >500 Pg of additional SOC. Soils hold the largest biogeochemically active terrestrial carbon pool on Earth and are critical for stabilizing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Nonetheless, global pressures on soils continue from changes in land management, including the need for increasing bioenergy and food production.
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| 4. |
- Loisel, Julie, et al.
(författare)
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Insights and issues with estimating northern peatland carbon stocks and fluxes since the Last Glacial Maximum
- 2017
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Ingår i: Earth-Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0012-8252 .- 1872-6828. ; 165, s. 59-80
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this review paper, we identify and address key uncertainties related to four local and global controls of Holocene northern peatland carbon stocks and fluxes. First, we provide up-to-date estimates of the current northern peatland area (3.2 M km(2)) and propose a novel approach to reconstruct changes in the northern peatland area over time (Section 2). Second, we review the key methods and models that have been used to quantify total carbon stocks and methane emissions over time at the hemispheric scale, and offer new research directions to improve these calculations (Section 3). Our main proposed improvement relates to allocating different carbon stock and emission values for each of the two dominant vegetation assemblages (sedge and brown moss-dominated vs. Sphagnum-dominated peat). Third, we discuss and quantify the importance of basin heterogeneity in estimating peat volume at the local scale (Section 4.1). We also highlight the importance of age model selection when reconstructing carbon accumulation rates from a peat core (Section 4.2). Lastly, we introduce the role of biogeomorphological agents such as beaver activity in controlling carbon dynamics (Section 5.1) and review the newest research related to permafrost thaw (Section 5.2) and peat fire (Section 5.3) under climate change. Overall, this review summarizes new information from a broad range of peat-carbon studies, provides novel analysis of hemispheric-scale paleo datasets, and proposes new insights on how to translate peat-core data into carbon fluxes. It also identifies critical data gaps and research priorities, and many ways to consider and address them.
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| 5. |
- Schuur, E. A. G., et al.
(författare)
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Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback
- 2015
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 520:7546, s. 171-179
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Large quantities of organic carbon are stored in frozen soils (permafrost) within Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Awarming climate can induce environmental changes that accelerate the microbial breakdown of organic carbon and the release of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. This feedback can accelerate climate change, but the magnitude and timing of greenhouse gas emission from these regions and their impact on climate change remain uncertain. Here we find that current evidence suggests a gradual and prolonged release of greenhouse gas emissions in a warming climate and present a research strategy with which to target poorly understood aspects of permafrost carbon dynamics.
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| 6. |
- Schuur, Edward A. G., et al.
(författare)
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Permafrost and Climate Change : Carbon Cycle Feedbacks From the Warming Arctic
- 2022
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Ingår i: Annual Review Environment and Resources. - : Annual Reviews. - 1543-5938 .- 1545-2050. ; 47, s. 343-371
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rapid Arctic environmental change affects the entire Earth system as thawing permafrost ecosystems release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Understanding how much permafrost carbon will be released, over what time frame, and what the relative emissions of carbon dioxide and methane will be is key for understanding the impact on global climate. In addition, the response of vegetation in a warming climate has the potential to offset at least some of the accelerating feedback to the climate from permafrost carbon. Temperature, organic carbon, and ground ice are key regulators for determining the impact of permafrost ecosystems on the global carbon cycle. Together, these encompass services of permafrost relevant to global society as well as to the people living in the region and help to determine the landscape-level response of this region to a changing climate.
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