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Carbon Dioxide Sources From Alaska Driven By Increasing Early Winter Respiration From Artic Tundra, Roisin Commane, Jacob Lindaas, Joshua Benmergui, Kristina Luus, Rachel Chang, Bruce Daube, Eugenie Euskirchen, John Henderson, Anna Karion, John Miller, Scot Miller, Nicholas Parazoo, James Randerson, Colm Sweeney, Pieter Tans, Kirk Thoning, Sander Veraverbeke, Charles Miller, Steven Wofsy

Articles

High-latitude ecosystems have the capacity to release large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere in response to increasing temperatures, representing a potentially significant positive feedback within the climate system. Here, we combine aircraft and tower observations of atmospheric CO2 with remote sensing data and meteorological products to derive temporally and spatially resolved year-round CO2 fluxes across Alaska during 2012-2014. We find that tundra ecosystems were a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere annually, with especially high rates of respiration during early winter (October through December). Long-term records at Barrow, AK, suggest that CO2emission rates from North Slope …