Simulating soil organic carbon in yedoma deposits during the Last Glacial Maximum in a land surface model

Substantial quantities of organic carbon (OC) are stored in the thick, ice‐rich, and organic‐rich sediments called yedoma deposits, distributed in eastern Siberia and Alaska today. Quantifying yedoma carbon stocks during the glacial period is important for understanding how much carbon could have been decomposed during the last deglaciation. Yet processes that yield the formation of thick frozen OC in yedoma deposits are missing in global carbon cycle models. Here we incorporate sedimentation parameterizations into the Organizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems (ORCHIDEE‐MICT) land surface model, which leads to reasonable results in OC vertical distribution and regional budgets, compared with site‐specific observations and inventories for today's nondegraded yedoma region. Simulated total soil OC stock for the northern permafrost region during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is 1536–1592 Pg C, of which 390–446 Pg C is within today's yedoma region. This result is an underestimation since we did not account for the potentially much larger yedoma area during the LGM than the present day.

[1]  G. Hugelius,et al.  GIS‐based Maps and Area Estimates of Northern Hemisphere Permafrost Extent during the Last Glacial Maximum , 2016 .

[2]  Matteo Smerlak,et al.  The predator-prey power law: Biomass scaling across terrestrial and aquatic biomes , 2015, Science.

[3]  P. Ciais,et al.  Improving the dynamics of Northern Hemisphere high-latitude vegetation in the ORCHIDEE ecosystem model , 2015 .

[4]  M. Kageyama,et al.  Evaluation of CMIP5 palaeo-simulations to improve climate projections , 2015 .

[5]  D. Lawrence,et al.  Simulated high-latitude soil thermal dynamics during the past 4 decades , 2015 .

[6]  D. M. Lawrence,et al.  Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback , 2014, Nature.

[7]  M. Meinshausen,et al.  Observation-based modelling of permafrost carbon fluxes with accounting for deep carbon deposits and thermokarst activity , 2014 .

[8]  Guido Grosse,et al.  Estimated stocks of circumpolar permafrost carbon with quantified uncertainty ranges and identified data gaps , 2014 .

[9]  E. Bard,et al.  Permafrost thawing as a possible source of abrupt carbon release at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød , 2014, Nature Communications.

[10]  K. Schaefer,et al.  The impact of the permafrost carbon feedback on global climate , 2014 .

[11]  F. S. Chapin,et al.  A shift of thermokarst lakes from carbon sources to sinks during the Holocene epoch , 2014, Nature.

[12]  J. Gill.  Ecological impacts of the late Quaternary megaherbivore extinctions. , 2014, The New phytologist.

[13]  B. Elberling,et al.  Circumpolar assessment of permafrost C quality and its vulnerability over time using long‐term incubation data , 2014, Global change biology.

[14]  G. Grosse,et al.  The deep permafrost carbon pool of the Yedoma region in Siberia and Alaska , 2013, Geophysical research letters.

[15]  M. Torn,et al.  The effect of vertically resolved soil biogeochemistry and alternate soil C and N models on C dynamics of CLM4 , 2013 .

[16]  B. Gaglioti,et al.  Ice-age megafauna in Arctic Alaska: extinction, invasion, survival , 2013 .

[17]  C. Beer,et al.  Predicting long‐term carbon mineralization and trace gas production from thawing permafrost of Northeast Siberia , 2013, Global change biology.

[18]  Charles D. Koven,et al.  Analysis of Permafrost Thermal Dynamics and Response to Climate Change in the CMIP5 Earth System Models , 2013 .

[19]  Guido Grosse,et al.  Distribution of late Pleistocene ice-rich syngenetic permafrost of the Yedoma Suite in east and central Siberia, Russia , 2013 .

[20]  E. Guilyardi,et al.  Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum climate simulations with the IPSL model—part I: comparing IPSL_CM5A to IPSL_CM4 , 2013, Climate Dynamics.

[21]  F. Chapin,et al.  Mammoth steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon , 2012 .

[22]  R. Zech.  A permafrost glacial hypothesis - Permafrost carbon might help explaining the Pleistocene ice ages , 2012 .

[23]  Guido Grosse,et al.  PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL FEATURES | Yedoma: Late Pleistocene Ice-Rich Syngenetic Permafrost of Beringia , 2012 .

[24]  E. Schuur,et al.  The rate of permafrost carbon release under aerobic and anaerobic conditions and its potential effects on climate , 2012 .

[25]  P. Ciais,et al.  Large inert carbon pool in the terrestrial biosphere during the Last Glacial Maximum , 2012 .

[26]  P. Ciais,et al.  Permafrost carbon-climate feedbacks accelerate global warming , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[27]  Guido Grosse,et al.  Sedimentary characteristics and origin of the Late Pleistocene Ice Complex on north-east Siberian Arctic coastal lowlands and islands – A review , 2011 .

[28]  Jan Polcher,et al.  Multi-scale validation of a new soil freezing scheme for a land-surface model with physically-based hydrology , 2011 .

[29]  E. Schuur,et al.  Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic , 2011 .

[30]  R. Tarozo,et al.  High carbon sequestration in Siberian permafrost loess-paleosols during glacials , 2011 .

[31]  I. Prentice,et al.  Global vegetation and terrestrial carbon cycle changes after the last ice age. , 2011, The New phytologist.

[32]  G. Haug,et al.  The polar ocean and glacial cycles in atmospheric CO2 concentration , 2010, Nature.

[33]  P. Ciais,et al.  On the formation of high‐latitude soil carbon stocks: Effects of cryoturbation and insulation by organic matter in a land surface model , 2009 .

[34]  P. Hulme,et al.  Herbivores inhibit climate‐driven shrub expansion on the tundra , 2009 .

[35]  J. Canadell,et al.  Soil organic carbon pools in the northern circumpolar permafrost region , 2009 .

[36]  N. Zimov,et al.  Carbon storage in permafrost and soils of the mammoth tundra‐steppe biome: Role in the global carbon budget , 2009 .

[37]  E. Brook,et al.  Atmospheric CO2 and Climate on Millennial Time Scales During the Last Glacial Period , 2008, Science.

[38]  S. Hagemann,et al.  Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change: Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle , 2008 .

[39]  H. Meyer,et al.  Palaeoenvironmental dynamics inferred from late Quaternary permafrost deposits on Kurungnakh Island, Lena Delta, Northeast Siberia, Russia , 2008 .

[40]  Andreas Richter,et al.  Conservation of soil organic matter through cryoturbation in arctic soils in Siberia , 2007 .

[41]  E. Schuur,et al.  Potential carbon release from permafrost soils of Northeastern Siberia , 2006 .

[42]  F. Chapin,et al.  Permafrost and the Global Carbon Budget , 2006, Science.

[43]  K. O U S H I K D U T T A,et al.  Potential carbon release from permafrost soils of Northeastern Siberia , 2006 .

[44]  A. Velichko,et al.  Landscape, climate and mammoth food resources in the East European Plain during the Late Paleolithic epoch , 2005 .

[45]  B. A. Yurtsev.  The Pleistocene ``Tundra-Steppe'' and the productivity paradox: the landscape approach , 2001 .

[46]  R. D. Guthrie.  Origin and causes of the mammoth steppe: a story of cloud cover, woolly mammal tooth pits, buckles, and inside-out Beringia , 2001 .

[47]  James F. Reynolds,et al.  Steppe-Tundra Transition: A Herbivore-Driven Biome Shift at the End of the Pleistocene , 1995, The American Naturalist.

[48]  B. Vanleer,et al.  Towards the ultimate conservative difference scheme. IV. A new approach to numerical convection , 1977 .