Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production

Abstract

Carbon release due to permafrost thaw represents a potentially major positive climate change feedback. The magnitude of carbon loss and the proportion lost as methane (CH 4 ) vs. carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) depend on factors including temperature, mobilization of previously frozen carbon, hydrology, and changes in organic matter chemistry associated with environmental responses to thaw. While the first three of these effects are relatively well understood, the effect of organic matter chemistry remains largely unstudied. To address this gap, we examined the biogeochemistry of peat and dissolved organic matter (DOM) along a ∼40-y permafrost thaw progression from recently-to fully thawed sites in Stordalen Mire (68.35°N,19.05°E), a thawing peat plateau in northern Sweden. Thaw-induced subsidence and the resulting inundation along this progression led to succession in vegetation types accompanied by an evolution in organic matter chemistry. Peat C/N ratios decreased whereas humification rates increased, and DOM shifted toward lower molecular weight compounds with lower aromaticity, lower organic oxygen content, and more abundant microbially produced compounds. Corresponding changes in decomposition along this gradient included increasing CH 4 and CO 2 production potentials, higher relative CH 4 /CO 2 ratios, and a shift in CH 4 production pathway from CO 2 reduction to acetate cleavage. These results imply that subsidence and thermokarst-associated increases in organic matter lability cause shifts in biogeochemical processes toward faster decomposition with an increasing proportion of carbon released as CH 4 . This impact of permafrost thaw on organic matter chemistry could intensify the predicted climate feedbacks of increasing temperatures, permafrost carbon mobilization, and hydrologic changes.H igh-latitude soils in the Northern Hemisphere contain an estimated 1,400-1,850 petagrams (Pg) of carbon, of which ∼277 Pg is in peatlands within the permafrost zone (1, 2). This quantity of 277 Pg represents over one-third of the carbon stock in the atmosphere (ca. 800 Pg) (3). The fate of this carbon in a warming climate-i.e., the responses of net carbon balance and CH 4 emissions-is important in predicting climate feedbacks of permafrost thaw. Although northern peatlands are currently a net carbon sink, and have been since the end of the last glaciation, they are a net source of CH 4 (4, 5), emitting 0.046-0.09 Pg of carbon as CH 4 per year (4, 6, 7). Due to CH 4 's disproportionate global warming potential (33× CO 2 for 1 kg CH 4 vs. 1 kg CO 2 at a 100-y timescale) (8), this is equivalent to 6-12% of annual fossil fuel emissions of CO 2 (8.7 Pg of C) (9). The thaw of permafrost peatlands may alter their CH 4 and CO 2 emissions due to mobilization of formerly frozen carbon, higher temperatures, altered redox conditions, and evolving organic matter chemistry. Changes in carbon emissions, and in CH 4 emission in particular, could have potentially significant climate impacts. CH 4 is produced by two primary mechanisms (10-12),...

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