Plant uptake of CO₂ outpaces losses from permafrost and plant respiration on the Tibetan Plateau.

ABSTRACT: High-latitude and high-altitude regions contain vast stores of permafrost carbon. Climate warming may result in the release of CO₂ from both the thawing of permafrost and accelerated autotrophic respiration, but it may also increase the fixation of CO₂ by plants, which could relieve or even offset the CO₂ losses. The Tibetan Plateau contains the largest area of alpine permafrost on Earth. However, the current status of the net CO₂ balance and feedbacks to warming remain unclear, given that the region has recently experienced an atmospheric warming rate of over 0.3 °C decade^-1 We examined 32 eddy covariance sites and found an unexpected net CO₂ sink during 2002 to 2020 (26 of the sites yielded a net CO₂ sink) that

SUBMITTER: Wei D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8379928 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature