A globally relevant stock of soil nitrogen in the Yedoma permafrost domain

verfasst von

Jens Strauss, Christina Biasi, Tina Sanders, Benjamin W Abbott, Thomas Schneider von Deimling, Carolina Voigt, Matthias Winkel, Maija E Marushchak, Dan Kou, Matthias Fuchs, Marcus A Horn, Loeka L Jongejans, Susanne Liebner, Jan Nitzbon, Lutz Schirrmeister, Katey Walter Anthony, Yuanhe Yang, Sebastian Zubrzycki, Sebastian Laboor, Claire Treat, Guido Grosse

Abstract

Nitrogen regulates multiple aspects of the permafrost climate feedback, including plant growth, organic matter decomposition, and the production of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Despite its importance, current estimates of permafrost nitrogen are highly uncertain. Here, we compiled a dataset of >2000 samples to quantify nitrogen stocks in the Yedoma domain, a region with organic-rich permafrost that contains ~25% of all permafrost carbon. We estimate that the Yedoma domain contains 41.2 gigatons of nitrogen down to ~20 metre for the deepest unit, which increases the previous estimate for the entire permafrost zone by ~46%. Approximately 90% of this nitrogen (37 gigatons) is stored in permafrost and therefore currently immobile and frozen. Here, we show that of this amount, ¾ is stored >3 metre depth, but if partially mobilised by thaw, this large nitrogen pool could have continental-scale consequences for soil and aquatic biogeochemistry and global-scale consequences for the permafrost feedback.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Mikrobiologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
University of Eastern Finland
Brigham Young University
Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Centrum für Erdsystemforschung und Nachhaltigkeit (CEN)
Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon GmbH

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Nature Communications

Band

13

ISSN

2041-1723

Publikationsdatum

14.10.2022

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemein, Allgemeine Physik und Astronomie, Allgemeine Chemie, Allgemeine Biochemie, Genetik und Molekularbiologie

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 13 – Klimaschutzmaßnahmen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33794-9 (Zugang: Offen)
https://doi.org/10.15488/13978 (Zugang: Offen)