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Amplified Carbon Release From Vast West Siberian Peatlands By 2100, Karen E. Frey, Laurence C. Smith

Geography

Extensive new data from previously unstudied Siberian streams and rivers suggest that mobilization of currently frozen, high-latitude soil carbon is likely over the next century in response to predicted Arctic warming. We present dissolved organic carbon (DOC) measurements from ninety-six watersheds in West Siberia, a region that contains the world's largest stores of peat carbon, exports massive volumes of freshwater and DOC to the Arctic Ocean, and is warming faster than the Arctic as a whole. The sample sites span ∼106 km2 over a large climatic gradient (∼55-68°N), providing data on a much broader spatial scale than previous studies and …