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An observation-based constraint on permafrost loss as a function of global warming

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 340–344 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Permafrost, which covers 15 million km2 of the land surface, is one of the components of the Earth system that is most sensitive to warming1,2. Loss of permafrost would radically change high-latitude hydrology and biogeochemical cycling, and could therefore provide very significant feedbacks on climate change3,4,5,6,7,8. The latest climate models all predict warming of high-latitude soils and thus thawing of permafrost under future climate change, but with widely varying magnitudes of permafrost thaw9,10. Here we show that in each of the models, their present-day spatial distribution of permafrost and air temperature can be used to infer the sensitivity of permafrost to future global warming. Using the same approach for the observed permafrost distribution and air temperature, we estimate a sensitivity of permafrost area loss to global mean warming at stabilization of million km2 °C−1 (1σ confidence), which is around 20% higher than previous studies9. Our method facilitates an assessment for COP21 climate change targets11: if the climate is stabilized at 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, we estimate that the permafrost area would eventually be reduced by over 40%. Stabilizing at 1.5 °C rather than 2 °C would save approximately 2 million km2 of permafrost.

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Figure 1: Defining the spatial distribution of observed permafrost as a function of observed air temperature.
Figure 2: Comparison of our estimate of global permafrost area with that simulated by the CMIP5 models (stabilization runs at 2300).
Figure 3: Relationship between global warming stabilization scenario and remaining permafrost area using our approach.
Figure 4: Changes in spatial patterns of permafrost under future stabilization scenarios.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding and support from the Permafrost in the Arctic and Global Effects in the 21st century (PAGE21) Framework 7 project GA282700. S.E.C., G.H. and S.W. were funded under the Joint Partnership Initiative (JPI) project COnstraining Uncertainties in the Permafrost-climate feedback (COUP) (S.E.C.: National Environment Research Council grant NE/M01990X/1; G.H.: Swedish Research Council grant no. E0689701; S.W.: Research Council of Norway project no. 244903/E10 with additional funding for S.W. through SatPerm and Permanor (Research Council of Norway project no. 239918 and 255331/E10)). E.J.B. was supported by the Joint UK DECC/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). P.M.C. and P.F. acknowledge funding from CRESCENDO (EU project 641816). S.E.C. is grateful to the University of Exeter for access to facilities. Thanks to D. Pearson for helpful discussions, and A. Lebéhot for comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

    S. E. Chadburn

  2. University of Exeter, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK

    S. E. Chadburn, P. M. Cox & P. Friedlingstein

  3. Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK

    E. J. Burke

  4. Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

    G. Hugelius

  5. Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1047 Blindern, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway

    S. Westermann

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Contributions

S.E.C. developed the techniques, made the calculations for future projections of permafrost, and produced the plots and manuscript. S.W. and G.H. provided and analysed data for evaluation, along with advice and comments. E.J.B. extracted CMIP5 model data. P.M.C. came up with the original idea to address this question. P.M.C., E.J.B. and P.F. provided advice, ideas and discussion throughout the process. All authors contributed towards writing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. E. Chadburn.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chadburn, S., Burke, E., Cox, P. et al. An observation-based constraint on permafrost loss as a function of global warming. Nature Clim Change 7, 340–344 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3262

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