Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region
Abstract Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the assessment of land carbon-climate...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3 |
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| author | Cuicui Mu Kun Li Shaoda Liu Yuguo Wei Mei Mu Xuexue Shang Fumei Liu Chunling Zhang Hebin Liu Tanguang Gao Chunlin Song Liwei Zhang Jan Karlsson |
| author_facet | Cuicui Mu Kun Li Shaoda Liu Yuguo Wei Mei Mu Xuexue Shang Fumei Liu Chunling Zhang Hebin Liu Tanguang Gao Chunlin Song Liwei Zhang Jan Karlsson |
| author_sort | Cuicui Mu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the assessment of land carbon-climate feedback. Using new and published 5685 riverine CO2 partial pressure data in the Arctic and Tibetan Plateau, we show that current riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone is 200 ± 15 Tg C yr⁻1. The emission offsets 28.1 ± 2.1% of the land carbon uptake in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone, with large regional variability of 13.1 to 63.1%. Our findings suggest that CO2 emissions increased at a rate of 0.42 ± 0.16 Tg C yr⁻1 during 2000 to 2020, and this is primarily driven by increased precipitation and accelerated permafrost thawing under climate change. This study highlights increased riverine carbon emission and strengthening of the permafrost carbon feedback to climate after incorporating carbon release from rivers. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-47d1cc055a564c76b88d7c0dbe34d41a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-47d1cc055a564c76b88d7c0dbe34d41a2025-08-20T02:28:09ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-04-0116111110.1038/s41467-025-58716-3Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost regionCuicui Mu0Kun Li1Shaoda Liu2Yuguo Wei3Mei Mu4Xuexue Shang5Fumei Liu6Chunling Zhang7Hebin Liu8Tanguang Gao9Chunlin Song10Liwei Zhang11Jan Karlsson12Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityState Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityAcademy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Qinghai Normal UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityKey Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Observation and research station on Eco-Environment of Frozen Ground in the Qilian Mountains, Lanzhou UniversityState Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, College of Water Resource and Hydropower, Sichuan UniversityState Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, Yangtze Delta Estuarine Wetland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station, East China Normal UniversityClimate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC), Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Linnaeus väg 6, 90187Abstract Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the assessment of land carbon-climate feedback. Using new and published 5685 riverine CO2 partial pressure data in the Arctic and Tibetan Plateau, we show that current riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone is 200 ± 15 Tg C yr⁻1. The emission offsets 28.1 ± 2.1% of the land carbon uptake in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone, with large regional variability of 13.1 to 63.1%. Our findings suggest that CO2 emissions increased at a rate of 0.42 ± 0.16 Tg C yr⁻1 during 2000 to 2020, and this is primarily driven by increased precipitation and accelerated permafrost thawing under climate change. This study highlights increased riverine carbon emission and strengthening of the permafrost carbon feedback to climate after incorporating carbon release from rivers.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3 |
| spellingShingle | Cuicui Mu Kun Li Shaoda Liu Yuguo Wei Mei Mu Xuexue Shang Fumei Liu Chunling Zhang Hebin Liu Tanguang Gao Chunlin Song Liwei Zhang Jan Karlsson Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region Nature Communications |
| title | Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region |
| title_full | Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region |
| title_fullStr | Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region |
| title_short | Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region |
| title_sort | recent intensified riverine co2 emission across the northern hemisphere permafrost region |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3 |
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