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Permafrost regions, characterised by extensive belowground excess ice, are highly vulnerable to rapid thaw, particularly in areas such as the Yedoma domain. This region is known to freeze-lock a globally significant stock of soil nitrogen (N). However, the fate of this N upon permafrost thaw remains largely unknown. In this study, we assess the impact of climate warming on the size and dynamics of the soil N pool in (sub-)Arctic ecosystems, drawing upon recently published data and literature. Our findings suggest that climate warming and increased thaw depths will result in an expansion of the reactive soil N pool due to the larger volume of (seasonally) thawed soil. Dissolved organic N emerges as the predominant N form for rapid cycling within (sub-)Arctic ecosystems. The fate of newly thawed N from permafrost is primarily influenced by plant uptake, microbial immobilisation, changes in decomposition rates due to improved N availability, as well as lateral flow. The Yedoma domain contains substantial N pools, and the partial but increasing thaw of this previously frozen N has the potential to amplify climate feedbacks through additional nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Our ballpark estimate indicates that the Yedoma domain may contribute approximately 6% of the global annual rate of N2O emissions from soils under natural vegetation. However, the released soil N could also mitigate climate feedbacks by promoting enhanced vegetation carbon uptake. The likelihood and rate of N2O production are highest in permafrost thaw sites with intermediate moisture content and disturbed vegetation, but accurately predicting future landscape and hydrology changes in the Yedoma domain remains challenging. Nevertheless, it is evident that the permafrost-climate feedback will be significantly influenced by the quantity and mobilisation state of this unconsidered N pool.

The northern permafrost region has been projected to shift from a net sink to a net source of carbon under global warming. However, estimates of the contemporary net greenhouse gas (GHG) balance and budgets of the permafrost region remain highly uncertain. Here, we construct the first comprehensive bottom-up budgets of CO2, CH4, and N2O across the terrestrial permafrost region using databases of more than 1000 in situ flux measurements and a land cover-based ecosystem flux upscaling approach for the period 2000–2020. Estimates indicate that the permafrost region emitted a mean annual flux of 12 (−606, 661) Tg CO2–C yr−1, 38 (22, 53) Tg CH4–C yr−1, and 0.67 (0.07, 1.3) Tg N2O–N yr−1 to the atmosphere throughout the period. Thus, the region was a net source of CH4 and N2O, while the CO2 balance was near neutral within its large uncertainties. Undisturbed terrestrial ecosystems had a CO2 sink of −340 (−836, 156) Tg CO2–C yr−1. Vertical emissions from fire disturbances and inland waters largely offset the sink in vegetated ecosystems. When including lateral fluxes for a complete GHG budget, the permafrost region was a net source of C and N, releasing 144 (−506, 826) Tg C yr−1 and 3 (2, 5) Tg N yr−1. Large uncertainty ranges in these estimates point to a need for further expansion of monitoring networks, continued data synthesis efforts, and better integration of field observations, remote sensing data, and ecosystem models to constrain the contemporary net GHG budgets of the permafrost region and track their future trajectory.

The greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of boreal peatlands in permafrost regions will be affected by climate change through disturbances such as permafrost thaw and wildfire. Although the future GHG balance of boreal peatlands including ponds is dominated by the exchange of both carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), disturbance impacts on fluxes of the potent GHG nitrous oxide (N2O) could contribute to shifts in the net radiative balance. Here, we measured monthly (April to October) fluxes of N2O, CH4, and CO2 from three sites located across the sporadic and discontinuous permafrost zones of western Canada. Undisturbed permafrost peat plateaus acted as N2O sinks (−0.025 mg N2O m−2 d−1), but N2O uptake was lower from burned plateaus (−0.003 mg N2O m−2 d−1) and higher following permafrost thaw in the thermokarst bogs (−0.054 mg N2O m−2 d−1). The thermokarst bogs had below-ambient N2O soil gas concentrations, suggesting that denitrification consumed atmospheric N2O during reduction to dinitrogen. Atmospheric uptake of N2O in peat plateaus and thermokarst bogs increased with soil temperature and soil moisture, suggesting sensitivity of N2O consumption to further climate change. Four of five peatland ponds acted as N2O sinks (−0.018 mg N2O m−2 d−1), with no influence of thermokarst expansion. One pond with high nitrate concentrations had high N2O emissions (0.30 mg N2O m−2 d−1). Overall, our study suggests that the future net radiative balance of boreal peatlands will be dominated by impacts of wildfire and permafrost thaw on CH4 and CO2 fluxes, while the influence from N2O is minor.

Past efforts to synthesize and quantify the magnitude and change in carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems across the rapidly warming Arctic–boreal zone (ABZ) have provided valuable information but were limited in their geographical and temporal coverage. Furthermore, these efforts have been based on data aggregated over varying time periods, often with only minimal site ancillary data, thus limiting their potential to be used in large-scale carbon budget assessments. To bridge these gaps, we developed a standardized monthly database of Arctic–boreal CO2 fluxes (ABCflux) that aggregates in situ measurements of terrestrial net ecosystem CO2 exchange and its derived partitioned component fluxes: gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration. The data span from 1989 to 2020 with over 70 supporting variables that describe key site conditions (e.g., vegetation and disturbance type), micrometeorological and environmental measurements (e.g., air and soil temperatures), and flux measurement techniques. Here, we describe these variables, the spatial and temporal distribution of observations, the main strengths and limitations of the database, and the potential research opportunities it enables. In total, ABCflux includes 244 sites and 6309 monthly observations; 136 sites and 2217 monthly observations represent tundra, and 108 sites and 4092 observations represent the boreal biome. The database includes fluxes estimated with chamber (19 % of the monthly observations), snow diffusion (3 %) and eddy covariance (78 %) techniques. The largest number of observations were collected during the climatological summer (June–August; 32 %), and fewer observations were available for autumn (September–October; 25 %), winter (December–February; 18 %), and spring (March–May; 25 %). ABCflux can be used in a wide array of empirical, remote sensing and modeling studies to improve understanding of the regional and temporal variability in CO2 fluxes and to better estimate th

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.

Tundra is experiencing more intense warming than any other ecosystem on earth. While warming is the most direct effect of climate change on tundra, warming leads to a cascade of environmental changes such as permafrost thaw, altered precipitation regimes, and increased wildfires. This chapter will first focus on how climate change is changing the environment of Arctic and subarctic tundra and then focus on how climate change is altering tundra's carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles with a focus on soils. Overall, tundra soils are shifting from being a carbon sink into a carbon source as rising temperatures increase microbial activity—a positive feedback to climate change. However, those rising temperatures are also increasing nutrient mineralization rates, which could increase ecosystem carbon storage via enhanced plant productivity as well as increase emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. There is currently a disconnect between the large soil carbon losses measured in many in situ experiments and the strong plant carbon gains predicted by models. Ultimately, more research is needed on the interplay between tundra soils, nutrients, and plants to determine the magnitude of tundra's feedback to climate change.

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.

Rationale Stable isotope approaches are increasingly applied to better understand the cycling of inorganic nitrogen (N-i) forms, key limiting nutrients in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. A systematic comparison of the accuracy and precision of the most commonly used methods to analyze delta N-15 in NO3- and NH4+ and interlaboratory comparison tests to evaluate the comparability of isotope results between laboratories are, however, still lacking. Methods Here, we conducted an interlaboratory comparison involving 10 European laboratories to compare different methods and laboratory performance to measure delta N-15 in NO3- and NH4+. The approaches tested were (a) microdiffusion (MD), (b) chemical conversion (CM), which transforms N-i to either N2O (CM-N2O) or N-2 (CM-N-2), and (c) the denitrifier (DN) methods. Results The study showed that standards in their single forms were reasonably replicated by the different methods and laboratories, with laboratories applying CM-N2O performing superior for both NO3- and NH4+, followed by DN. Laboratories using MD significantly underestimated the "true" values due to incomplete recovery and also those using CM-N-2 showed issues with isotope fractionation. Most methods and laboratories underestimated the at%N-15 of N-i of labeled standards in their single forms, but relative errors were within maximal 6% deviation from the real value and therefore acceptable. The results showed further that MD is strongly biased by nonspecificity. The results of the environmental samples were generally highly variable, with standard deviations (SD) of up to +/- 8.4 parts per thousand for NO3- and +/- 32.9 parts per thousand for NH4+; SDs within laboratories were found to be considerably lower (on average 3.1 parts per thousand). The variability could not be connected to any single factor but next to errors due to blank contamination, isotope normalization, and fractionation, and also matrix effects and analytical errors have to be considere

Past efforts to synthesize and quantify the magnitude and change in carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems across the rapidly warming Arctic-boreal zone (ABZ) have provided valuable information but were limited in their geographical and temporal coverage. Furthermore, these efforts have been based on data aggregated over varying time periods, often with only minimal site ancillary data, thus limiting their potential to be used in large-scale carbon budget assessments. To bridge these gaps, we developed a standardized monthly database of Arctic-boreal CO2 fluxes (ABCflux) that aggregates in situ measurements of terrestrial net ecosystem CO2 exchange and its derived partitioned component fluxes: gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration. The data span from 1989 to 2020 with over 70 supporting variables that describe key site conditions (e.g., vegetation and disturbance type), micrometeorological and environmental measurements (e.g., air and soil temperatures), and flux measurement techniques. Here, we describe these variables, the spatial and temporal distribution of observations, the main strengths and limitations of the database, and the potential research opportunities it enables. In total, ABCflux includes 244 sites and 6309 monthly observations; 136 sites and 2217 monthly observations represent tundra, and 108 sites and 4092 observations represent the boreal biome. The database includes fluxes estimated with chamber (19% of the monthly observations), snow diffusion (3%) and eddy covariance (78%) techniques. The largest number of observations were collected during the climatological summer (June-August; 32%), and fewer observations were available for autumn (September-October; 25%), winter (December-February; 18%), and spring (March-May; 25%). ABCflux can be used in a wide array of empirical, remote sensing and modeling studies to improve understanding of the regional and temporal variability in CO2 fluxes and to better estimate the te

The regional variability in tundra and boreal carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes can be high, complicating efforts to quantify sink-source patterns across the entire region. Statistical models are increasingly used to predict (i.e., upscale) CO2 fluxes across large spatial domains, but the reliability of different modeling techniques, each with different specifications and assumptions, has not been assessed in detail. Here, we compile eddy covariance and chamber measurements of annual and growing season CO2 fluxes of gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) during 1990–2015 from 148 terrestrial high-latitude (i.e., tundra and boreal) sites to analyze the spatial patterns and drivers of CO2 fluxes and test the accuracy and uncertainty of different statistical models. CO2 fluxes were upscaled at relatively high spatial resolution (1 km2) across the high-latitude region using five commonly used statistical models and their ensemble, that is, the median of all five models, using climatic, vegetation, and soil predictors. We found the performance of machine learning and ensemble predictions to outperform traditional regression methods. We also found the predictive performance of NEE-focused models to be low, relative to models predicting GPP and ER. Our data compilation and ensemble predictions showed that CO2 sink strength was larger in the boreal biome (observed and predicted average annual NEE −46 and −29 g C m−2 yr−1, respectively) compared to tundra (average annual NEE +10 and −2 g C m−2 yr−1). This pattern was associated with large spatial variability, reflecting local heterogeneity in soil organic carbon stocks, climate, and vegetation productivity. The terrestrial ecosystem CO2 budget, estimated using the annual NEE ensemble prediction, suggests the high-latitude region was on average an annual CO2 sink during 1990–2015, although uncertainty remains high.

Arctic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions have long been assumed to have a negligible climatic impact but recently increasing evidence has emerged of N2O hotspots in the Arctic. Even in small amounts, N2O has the potential to contribute to climate change due to it being nearly 300 times more potent at radiative forcing than CO2. Therefore, the ‘NOCA’ project aims to establish the first circumarctic N2O budget. Following intensive N2O flux sampling campaigns at primary sites within Northern Russia and soil N2O concentration measurements from secondary sites across the Arctic, we are now entering the phase of spatial extrapolation. Challenges to overcome are the small-scale heterogeneity of the landscape and incorporating small features that can function as N2O hotspots. Therefore, as a first step in upscaling the N2O fluxes, high resolution imagery is needed. We show here novel high-resolution 3D imagery from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which will be used to upscale N2O fluxes from plot to landscape scale by linking ground-truth N2O measurements to vegetation maps. This approach will first be applied to the East cliff of Kurungnakh Island in the Lena River Delta of North Siberia and is based on 2019 sampling campaign data. Kurungnakh Island is characterized by ice and organic-rich Yedoma permafrost that is thawed by fluvial thermo-erosion forming retrogressive thaw slumps in various stages of activity. Overall, 20 sites were sampled along the cliff and inland, covering the significant topographic and vegetative characteristics of the landscape. The data from this scale will provide the basis for extrapolating, by using a stepwise upscaling approach, to the regional and finally circumarctic scale, allowing a first rough estimate of the current climate impact of N2O emissions from permafrost affected soils. Available international circumarctic data from this and past projects will be synthesized with an Arctic N2O database under development for use in future ecosystem

The regional variability in tundra and boreal carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes can be high, complicating efforts to quantify sink-source patterns across the entire region. Statistical models are increasingly used to predict (i.e., upscale) CO2 fluxes across large spatial domains, but the reliability of different modeling techniques, each with different specifications and assumptions, has not been assessed in detail. Here, we compile eddy covariance and chamber measurements of annual and growing season CO2 fluxes of gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) during 1990–2015 from 148 terrestrial high-latitude (i.e., tundra and boreal) sites to analyze the spatial patterns and drivers of CO2 fluxes and test the accuracy and uncertainty of different statistical models. CO2 fluxes were upscaled at relatively high spatial resolution (1 km2) across the high-latitude region using five commonly used statistical models and their ensemble, that is, the median of all five models, using climatic, vegetation, and soil predictors. We found the performance of machine learning and ensemble predictions to outperform traditional regression methods. We also found the predictive performance of NEE-focused models to be low, relative to models predicting GPP and ER. Our data compilation and ensemble predictions showed that CO2 sink strength was larger in the boreal biome (observed and predicted average annual NEE −46 and −29 g C m −2 yr−1, respectively) compared to tundra (average annual NEE +10 and −2 g C m−2 yr−1). This pattern was associated with large spatial variability, reflecting local heterogeneity in soil organic carbon stocks, climate, and vegetation productivity. The terrestrial ecosystem CO2 budget, estimated using the annual NEE ensemble prediction, suggests the high-latitude region was on average a

The regional variability in tundra and boreal carbon dioxide (CO2 ) fluxes can be high, complicating efforts to quantify sink-source patterns across the entire region. Statistical models are increasingly used to predict (i.e., upscale) CO2 fluxes across large spatial domains, but the reliability of different modeling techniques, each with different specifications and assumptions, has not been assessed in detail. Here, we compile eddy covariance and chamber measurements of annual and growing season CO2 fluxes of gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (ER), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) during 1990-2015 from 148 terrestrial high-latitude (i.e., tundra and boreal) sites to analyze the spatial patterns and drivers of CO2 fluxes and test the accuracy and uncertainty of different statistical models. CO2 fluxes were upscaled at relatively high spatial resolution (1 km2 ) across the high-latitude region using five commonly-used statistical models and their ensemble, i.e., the median of all five models, using climatic, vegetation, and soil predictors. We found the performance of machine learning and ensemble predictions to outperform traditional regression methods. We also found the predictive performance of NEE-focused models to be low, relative to models predicting GPP and ER. Our data compilation and ensemble predictions showed that CO2 sink strength was larger in the boreal biome (observed and predicted average annual NEE -46 and -29 g C m-2 yr-1 , respectively) compared to tundra (average annual NEE +10 and -2 g C m-2 yr-1 ). This pattern was associated with large spatial variability, reflecting local heterogeneity in soil organic carbon stocks, climate, and vegetation productivity. The terrestrial ecosystem CO2 budget, estimated using the annual NEE ensemble prediction, suggests the high-latitude region was on average an annual CO2 sink during 1990-2015, although uncertainty remains high.