Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region
Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO<sub>2</sub> release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO<sub>2</sub> emissions remain unclear, limiting the assessment of land carbon-climate feedback. Using new and published 5685 riverine CO<sub>2</sub> partial pressure data in the Arctic and Tibetan Plateau, we show that current riverine CO<sub>2</sub> emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone is 200 ± 15 Tg C yr⁻<sup>1</sup>. The emission offsets 28.1 ± 2.1% of the land carbon uptake in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone, with large regional variability of 13.1 to 63.1%. Our findings suggest that CO<sub>2</sub> emissions increased at a rate of 0.42 ± 0.16 Tg C yr⁻<sup>1</sup> during 2000 to 2020, and this is primarily driven by increased precipitation and accelerated permafrost thawing under climate change. This study highlights increased riverine carbon emission and strengthening of the permafrost carbon feedback to climate after incorporating carbon release from rivers.
Authors
- Yuguo Wei
- Mei Mu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0921-4614)
- Xuexue Shang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1946-5077)
- Shaoda Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0836-5085)
- Fumei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7614-6693)
- Cuicui Mu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0630-9423)
- Hebin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3690-6018)
- Jan Karlsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5730-0694)
- Tanguang Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3050-5590)
- Chunlin Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3627-2350)
- Liwei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1610-2816)
- Kun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2232-1521)
- Chun‐Ling Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-2764)
Institutions
- Qinghai Normal University (CN)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Abisko Scientific Research Station (SE)
- Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (CN)
- Shanghai Estuarine & Coastal Science Research Center (CN)
- Lanzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-04-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Climate change and permafrost
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.91
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities