Large stocks of permafrost soil organic carbon and nitrogen in Arctic river deltas

Arctic deltas are highly dynamic environments at the land-ocean interface that have acted as long-term sinks of sediment, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N). Climate impacts Arctic deltas and their upstream catchments through sea-level rise, altered river discharge, increased sediment fluxes, intensified biogeochemical cycling, and permafrost thaw. As a result, soil C and N in Arctic delta deposits are becoming more bioavailable. Here, we present a C and N inventory for Arctic delta compiled from over 1600 soil samples spanning 17 river deltas. We estimate that Arctic delta deposits store 57.5 ( + 9.2/−8.2) Pg C and 3.8 ( + 0.8/−0.7) Pg N across a combined area of nearly 100,000 km², representing large and potentially vulnerable biogeochemical pools. Our findings underscore the potentially pivotal role of Arctic deltas in the pan-Arctic carbon cycle and highlight their importance as dynamic zones of both C and N storage and release in a rapidly changing Arctic. This study estimates that Arctic deltas contain vast amounts of soil organic carbon (57.7 Pg) and soil nitrogen (3.8 Pg). This highlights the importance of these vulnerable permafrost landscapes at the land-ocean interface in a changing Arctic.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-05-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73092-2
Primary Topic
Climate change and permafrost
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Large stocks of permafrost soil organic carbon and nitrogen in Arctic river deltas

Sebastian Zubrzycki, Lutz Schirrmeister, Pier Paul Overduin, Lars Kutzbach et al.
Nature Communications
Climate change and permafrost
article

Large stocks of permafrost soil organic carbon and nitrogen in Arctic river deltas

Sebastian Zubrzycki, Lutz Schirrmeister, Pier Paul Overduin, Lars Kutzbach, Alexandra Runge, Georg Schwamborn, Alexandra Veremeeva, Juri Palmtag, Loeka L. Jongejans, Matthias B. Siewert, Matthias Fuchs, Oleg S. Pokrovsky, Kokelj,, Steven V, Torsten Sachs, Claire Treat, Gerald V. Frost, Gustaf Hugelius, Chien-Lu Ping, Ingmar Nitze, Elizaveta Rivkina, Jens Strauss, Benjamin M. Jones, Guido Grosse
article en

Abstract

Arctic deltas are highly dynamic environments at the land-ocean interface that have acted as long-term sinks of sediment, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N). Climate impacts Arctic deltas and their upstream catchments through sea-level rise, altered river discharge, increased sediment fluxes, intensified biogeochemical cycling, and permafrost thaw. As a result, soil C and N in Arctic delta deposits are becoming more bioavailable. Here, we present a C and N inventory for Arctic delta compiled from over 1600 soil samples spanning 17 river deltas. We estimate that Arctic delta deposits store 57.5 ( + 9.2/−8.2) Pg C and 3.8 ( + 0.8/−0.7) Pg N across a combined area of nearly 100,000 km², representing large and potentially vulnerable biogeochemical pools. Our findings underscore the potentially pivotal role of Arctic deltas in the pan-Arctic carbon cycle and highlight their importance as dynamic zones of both C and N storage and release in a rapidly changing Arctic. This study estimates that Arctic deltas contain vast amounts of soil organic carbon (57.7 Pg) and soil nitrogen (3.8 Pg). This highlights the importance of these vulnerable permafrost landscapes at the land-ocean interface in a changing Arctic.

Nature Communications
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Alaska Fairbanks (US), Universität Hamburg (DE), Stockholm University (SE), University of Potsdam (DE), Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR), University of Colorado Boulder (US), National Research Tomsk State University (RU), Aarhus University (DK), Institute of Physical-Chemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science (RU), Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (DE), GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE), Alaska Biological Research (United States) (US), Government of Northwest Territories (CA), Bolin Centre for Climate Research (SE), Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (FR), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL), Umeå University (SE), Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management (Sweden) (SE), Technische Universität Braunschweig (DE)
National Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Natural Environment Research Council, Office of International Science and Engineering
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Climate change and permafrost
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