IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58716-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region

Author

Listed:
  • Cuicui Mu

    (Lanzhou University
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Qinghai Normal University)

  • Kun Li

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Shaoda Liu

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Yuguo Wei

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Mei Mu

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Xuexue Shang

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Fumei Liu

    (Qinghai Normal University)

  • Chunling Zhang

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Hebin Liu

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Tanguang Gao

    (Lanzhou University)

  • Chunlin Song

    (Sichuan University)

  • Liwei Zhang

    (East China Normal University)

  • Jan Karlsson

    (Linnaeus väg 6, 90187)

Abstract

Global warming causes permafrost thawing, transferring large amounts of soil carbon into rivers, which inevitably accelerates riverine CO2 release. However, temporally and spatially explicit variations of riverine CO2 emissions remain unclear, limiting the assessment of land carbon-climate feedback. Using new and published 5685 riverine CO2 partial pressure data in the Arctic and Tibetan Plateau, we show that current riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone is 200 ± 15 Tg C yr⁻1. The emission offsets 28.1 ± 2.1% of the land carbon uptake in the Northern Hemisphere permafrost zone, with large regional variability of 13.1 to 63.1%. Our findings suggest that CO2 emissions increased at a rate of 0.42 ± 0.16 Tg C yr⁻1 during 2000 to 2020, and this is primarily driven by increased precipitation and accelerated permafrost thawing under climate change. This study highlights increased riverine carbon emission and strengthening of the permafrost carbon feedback to climate after incorporating carbon release from rivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Cuicui Mu & Kun Li & Shaoda Liu & Yuguo Wei & Mei Mu & Xuexue Shang & Fumei Liu & Chunling Zhang & Hebin Liu & Tanguang Gao & Chunlin Song & Liwei Zhang & Jan Karlsson, 2025. "Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58716-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58716-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58716-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.