Quantifying an Overlooked Deciduous-Needleleaf Carbon Sink at the Southern Margin of the Central-Siberian Permafrost Zone

With over 700 million km(2) Siberia is the largest expanse of the northern boreal forest-deciduous-needleleaf larch. Temperatures are increasing across this region, but the consequences to carbon balances are not well understood for larch forests. We present flux measurements from a larch forest near the southern edge of Central-Siberia where permafrost degradation and ecosystem shifts are already observed. Results indicate net carbon exchanges are influenced by the seasonality of permafrost active layers, temperature and humidity, and soil water availability. During periods when surface soils are fully thawed, larch forest is a significant carbon sink. During the spring-thaw and fall-freeze transition, there is a weak signal of carbon uptake at mid-day. Net carbon exchanges are near-zero when the soil is fully frozen from the surface down to the permafrost. We fit an empirical ecosystem functional model to quantify the dependence of larch-forest carbon balance on climatic drivers. The model provides a basis for ecosystem carbon budgets over time and space. Larch differs from boreal evergreens by having higher maximum productivity and lower respiration, leading to an increased carbon sink. Comparison to previous measurements from another northern larch site suggests climate change will result in an increased forest carbon sink if the southern larch subtype replaces the northern subtype. Observations of carbon fluxes in Siberian larch are still too sparse to adequately determine age dependence, inter-annual variability, and spatial heterogeneity though they suggest that boreal larch accounts for a larger fraction of global carbon uptake than has been previously recognized.

Automated summary

We conducted flux measurements in Siberian larch forests and found that they serve as important carbon sinks during the thawing period. When the surface soils are fully frozen, net carbon exchanges are near-zero. We developed an empirical ecosystem functional model to quantify the dependence of carbon balance in larch forests on climatic drivers. The model provides a basis for carbon budget estimation and suggests that the southern larch subtype will increase the forest carbon sink compared to the northern subtype.