Quantifying an underestimated deciduous-needleleaf carbon sink at the
southern margin of the central-Siberian permafrost zone
Abstract
With over 700 million km2 Siberia is the largest
expanse of the northern boreal forest—deciduous-needleleaf larch.
Temperatures are increasing across this region, but the consequences to
carbon balances are not well understood for larch forests. We present
flux measurements from a larch forest near the southern edge of
Central-Siberia where permafrost degradation and ecosystem shifting are
already observed. Results indicate net carbon exchanges are influenced
by the seasonality of permafrost active layers, temperature and
humidity, and soil water availability. During periods when surface soils
are fully thawed, larch forest is a significant carbon sink. During the
spring-thaw and fall-freeze transition, there is a weak signal of carbon
uptake at mid-day. Net carbon exchanges are near-zero when the soil is
fully frozen from the surface down to the permafrost. We fit an
empirical ecosystem functional model to quantify the dependence of
larch-forest carbon balance on climatic drivers. The model provides a
basis for ecosystem carbon budgets over time and space. Larch differs
from boreal evergreens by having higher maximum productivity and lower
respiration, leading to an increased carbon sink. Comparison to previous
measurements from another northern larch site suggests climate change
will result in an increased forest carbon sink if the southern larch
subtype replaces the northern subtype. Observations of carbon fluxes in
Siberian larch are still too sparse to adequately determine age
dependence, inter-annual variability, and spatial heterogeneity though
they suggest that boreal larch accounts for a larger fraction of global
carbon uptake than has been previously recognized.