Special

Permafrost

High-latitude permafrost regions store vast amounts of organic carbon. Rising temperatures are causing frozen grounds to thaw, facilitating the microbial decomposition and conversion of soil organic carbon into the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. The release of permafrost carbon into the atmosphere represents a positive feedback effect that may accelerate climate change. In a related feedback, carbon might be released from submarine permafrost stored beneath the Arctic Ocean’s continental shelves. We present a selection of overview articles and primary research from Nature, Nature Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, Nature Reviews Microbiology and Nature Communications over the past two years that discuss the interaction between climate change and the permafrost carbon pool, including the role of microbes in permafrost soils.

Credit: Alaska landscape by Ted Schuur

Reviews
Articles and Letters
News and Views
Comment

Reviews

Climate Change and the Permafrost Carbon Feedback

Schuur E. A. G. et al.

Nature 520, 355–364 ( 9 April 2015 )
The microbial ecology of permafrost

Jansson J. K. & Tas N.

Nature Reviews Microbiology 12, 414–425 ( 12 May 2014 )
The impact of lower sea-ice extent on Arctic greenhouse-gas exchange

Parmentier, F. - J. W. et al.

Nature Climate Change 3, 195-202 ( 17 February 2013 )

Articles and Letters

Permafrost thawing in organic Arctic soils accelerated by ground heat production

Hollesen J. et al.

Nature Climate Change ( 6 April 2015 )
Multi-omics of permafrost, active layer and thermokarst bog soil microbiomes

Hultman J. et al.

Nature 515, ( 4 March 2015 )
Long-term winter warming trend in the Siberian Arctic during the mid- to late Holocene

Meyer, H. et al.

Nature Geoscience 8, 122–125 ( 26 January 2015 )
Net regional methane sink in High Arctic soils of northeast Greenland

Jørgensen, C. J. et al.

Nature Geoscience 8, 20–23 ( 8 December 2014 )
Permafrost collapse after shrub removal shifts tundra ecosystem to a methane source

Nauta A. L. et al.

Nature Climate Change 5, 67–70 ( 24 November 2014 )
Permafrost thawing as a possible source of abrupt carbon release at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød

Köhler P., Knorr G. & Bard E.

Nature Communications 5, 5520 ( 20 November 2014 )
Methane dynamics regulated by microbial community response to permafrost thaw

McCalley, C. K. et al.

Nature 514, 478–481 ( 23 October 2014 )
Holocene variations in peatland methane cycling associated with the Asian summer monsoon system

Zheng Y. et al.

Nature Communications 5, 4631 ( 19 August 2014 )
A shift of thermokarst lakes from carbon sources to sinks during the Holocene epoch

Walter Anthony, K. M. et al.

Nature 511, 452–456 ( 24 July 2014 )
Carbon storage and potential methane production in the Hudson Bay Lowlands since mid-Holocene peat initiation

Packalen M.S., Finkelstein S.A. & McLaughlin J. W.

Nature Communications 5, 4078 ( 11 June 2014 )
Discovery of a novel methanogen prevalent in thawing permafrost

Mondav R. et al.

Nature Communications 5, 3212 ( 14 February 2014 )
High Arctic wetting reduces permafrost carbon feedbacks to climate warming

Lupascu M. et al.

Nature Climate Change 4, 51–55 ( 1 December 2013 )
Ebullition and storm-induced methane release from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

Shakhova N. et al.

Nature Geoscience 7, 64–70 ( 24 November 2013 )
Long-term CO₂ production following permafrost thaw

Elberling B. et al.

Nature Climate Change 3, 890–894 ( 28 July 2013 )
Long-term warming restructures Arctic tundra without changing net soil carbon storage

Sistla S. A. et al.

Nature 497, 615–618 ( 30 May 2013 )

News and Views

Climate science: Cold carbon storage

Sebastian Sobek

Nature 511, 415–417 ( 24 July 2014 )
Marine biogeochemistry: Arctic shelf methane sounds alarm

Peter Brewer

Nature Geoscience 7, 6-7 ( 23 December 2013 )
Carbon storage: A permafrost carbon bomb?

Claire C. Treat & Steve Frolking

Nature Climate Change 3, 865–867 ( 25 September 2013 )

Comment

Climate science: Understand Arctic methane variability

Torben R. Christensen

Nature 509, 279–281 ( 15 May 2014 )
Permafrost-carbon complexities

Jorien E. Vonk & Örjan Gustafsson

Nature Geoscience 6, 675–676 ( 29 August 2013 )
Climate science: Vast costs of Arctic change

Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope & Peter Wadhams

Nature 499, 401–403 ( 25 July 2013 )

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