Permafrost is warming at a global scale

Abstract

Permafrost warming has the potential to amplify global climate change, because when frozen sediments thaw it unlocks soil organic carbon. Yet to date, no globally consistent assessment of permafrost temperature change has been compiled. Here we use a global data set of permafrost temperature time series from the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost to evaluate temperature change across permafrost regions for the period since the International Polar Year (2007–2009). During the reference decade between 2007 and 2016, ground temperature near the depth of zero annual amplitude in the continuous permafrost zone increased by 0.39 ± 0.15 °C. Over the same period, discontinuous permafrost warmed by 0.20 ± 0.10 °C. Permafrost in mountains warmed by 0.19 ± 0.05 °C and in Antarctica by 0.37 ± 0.10 °C. Globally, permafrost temperature increased by 0.29 ± 0.12 °C. The observed trend follows the Arctic amplification of air temperature increase in the Northern Hemisphere. In the discontinuous zone, however, ground warming occurred due to increased snow thickness while air temperature remained statistically unchanged.

Fluvial CO2 and CH4 patterns across wildfire‐disturbed ecozones of subarctic Canada: Current status and implications for future change

“…A significant fraction of this stored carbon is trapped in permafrost (Hugelius et al, ), and thus is largely inaccessible for biogeochemical processing. However, warming in this region (Biskaborn et al, ) enables these large carbon stores to become subjected to biogeochemical processing (Pries, Schuur, & Crummer, ), by changing hydrologic flow paths (Connon, Devoie, Hayashi, Veness, & Quinton, ; Walvoord & Kurylyk, ) and enhancing the transport of carbon from land to water (Spence, Kokelj, Kokelj, McCluskie, & Hedstrom, ; Toohey, Herman‐Mercer, Schuster, Mutter, & Koch, ). In addition, increasing air temperatures are causing the boreal region to experience increased wildfire frequency (Coops, Hermosilla, Wulder, White, & Bolton, ), which further augments permafrost thaw (Gibson et al, ).…”

“…Permafrost thaw and increasing wildfire frequency are especially pronounced in the Western Canadian Taiga, which is a subset of the larger boreal biome (Marshall, Schut, & Ballard, 1999). This region has been substantially affected by recent megafires (Walker et al, 2018), while permafrost warming (Biskaborn et al, 2019) has resulted in significant changes in permafrost extent and landscape composition (Carpino, Berg, Quinton, & Adams, 2018;Haynes, Connon, & Quinton, 2018). Compounding these changes, there is evidence that wildfire is accelerating permafrost thaw in this region (Gibson et al, 2018).…”

Biofilm Growth in Two Streams Draining Mountainous Permafrost Catchments in NE Greenland

“…Warming causes permafrost thaw through the gradual deepening of the active layer and increasing soil mass wasting processes (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, 2017). The active layer will continue to deepen and ice‐rich zones will thaw, which will promote slope instability, rapid mass movement (e.g., landslides and active layer failures) and enhanced rates of solifluction activity (Biskaborn et al, 2019; Farquharson et al, 2019; Lewkowicz & Way, 2019). These climate‐driven changes will impact the hydrological and related hydrochemical fluxes to aquatic ecosystems (Lafreniére & Lamoureux, 2019).…”

Buried Late Weichselian thermokarst landscape discovered in the Czech Republic, central Europe

“…Observations indicate that over the past several decades, geomorphic processes in permafrost regions have been intensifying (Biskaborn et al . ), affecting ecological and biological systems, and destabilizing arctic infrastructure (e.g. Rowland et al .…”

“…Widespread thermokarst initiation appears to have coincided with the onset of the Holocene as a result of warmer and wetter conditions relative to the Pleistocene (Czudek & Demek 1970;Rampton 1988;Walter et al 2007;Morgenstern et al 2011;Biskaborn et al 2013;Lenz et al 2016). Observations indicate that over the past several decades, geomorphic processes in permafrost regions have been intensifying (Biskaborn et al 2019), affecting ecological and biological systems, and destabilizing arctic infrastructure (e.g. Rowland et al 2010).…”