Purdue Climate Change Research Center

Collaborative Research: Quantifying Climate Feedbacks of the Terrestrial Biosphere under Thawing Permafrost Conditions in the Arctic

Funded by Department of Energy

This study aims to quantify the climate-warming feedback potential from emitted trace gases, as well as landscape changes within Arctic ecosystems. Analyzing these areas, we will test the hypothesis that there exists a warming threshold beyond which permafrost degradation and lake/wetland expansion will stimulate increases in methane and carbon dioxide emissions. This proposed research further improves our earth-system model by enhancing our representation of permafrost and dynamic wetland and lake systems to explore their effects on hydrological and carbon dynamics.

Investigator(s)

• Qianlai  Zhuang
• C. Adam Schlosser, MIT
• Jerry Melillo, MBL
• K. Anthony Walter, UAF