Impact of Long‐Term Drainage on Carbon Fluxes in the High‐Latitude Permafrost Region

TL;DR

This study examines how long-term drainage affects carbon fluxes in Arctic permafrost regions, showing that drainage alters vegetation and reduces methane emissions.

Contribution

The study provides empirical evidence on how drainage impacts carbon dynamics and ecosystem responses in Arctic tundra ecosystems.

Findings

Drainage increased vegetation density and altered carbon turnover rates, enhancing ecosystem respiration and gross primary production.

Methane emissions at the drained site were nearly halved due to lower water table depth.

Drainage made the ecosystem more sensitive to global radiation and deep soil temperatures.

Abstract

With Arctic amplification, hydrological conditions in Arctic permafrost regions are expected to change substantially, which can have a strong impact on carbon budgets. To date, detailed mechanisms remain highly uncertain due to the lack of continuous observational data. Considering the large carbon storage in these regions, understanding these processes becomes crucial for estimating the future trajectory of global climate change. This study presents findings from 8 years of continuous eddy‐covariance measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes over a wet tussock tundra ecosystem near Chersky in Northeast Siberia, comparing data between a site affected by a long‐term drainage disturbance and an undisturbed control site. We observed a significant increasing trend in roughness lengths at both sites, indicating denser and/or taller vegetation; however, the increase at the drained site was more pronounced, highlighting the dominant impact of drainage on vegetation structure. These trends in aboveground biomass contributed to differences in gross primary production (GPP) between the two sites increasing over the years, continuously reducing the negative effect of the drainage disturbance on the sink strength for CO2. In addition, carbon turnover rates at the drained site were enhanced, with ecosystem respiration and GPP consistently higher compared to the control site. Because of the artificially lower water table depth (WTD), CH4 emissions at the drained site were almost halved. Furthermore, drainage altered the ecosystem's response to environmental controls. Compared to the control site, the drained site became slightly more sensitive to the global radiation (Rg), resulting in higher CO2 uptake under the same levels of Rg. Meanwhile, CH4 emissions at the drained site showed a higher correlation with deep soil temperatures. Overall, our findings from this WTD manipulation experiment show that changing hydrological conditions will significantly impact the Arctic ecosystem characteristics, carbon budgets, and ecosystem's response to environmental changes.

Increasing air temperatures and changes in snow regimes in Arctic permafrost regions affect hydrological conditions, impacting ecosystems, vegetation structures, and carbon budgets. This study investigates the effects of hydrological changes on ecosystem dynamics by artificially draining a field site with a 200‐m diameter circular ditch, creating a dry ecosystem. A wet, undisturbed ecosystem located approximately 600 m away served as a control site. We observed significant differences in vegetation and methane fluxes between these sites. Additionally, ecosystem respiration was consistently higher at the dry site compared to the wet control site.

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