Changes in carbon stock in the Xing’an permafrost regions in Northeast China from the late 1980s to 2020

ABSTRACT

The degradation of Xing’an permafrost affects the stability of carbon pool and carbon emissions of the hemiboreal ecosystem in Northeast China. Due to the lack of long-term monitoring and detailed research, changes in carbon stock in terrestrial ecosystems in the Xing’an permafrost regions in Northeast China remain little known. In this study, we conducted more accurate simulations for the aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB), dead organic carbon (DOC), and soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top 0–30 cm in permafrost regions in Northeast China using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. The model was applied using multi-period land use/land cover (LULC) and carbon density data from the late 1980s, 2000, 2010, and 2020. In Northeast China, the permafrost extent shrank rapidly by 108,600 km² from 365,300 km² in the 1980s to 256,700 km² in the 2010s. The total carbon stock in permafrost regions in Northeast China was estimated at 4293.04 Tg C in the 1980s and at 4049.56 Tg C in the 2010s. Based on the permafrost extent of the 1980s, it was estimated that from the late 1980s to 2020, the LULC transformation resulted in the reduction of carbon stock by 33.53 Tg C, while the carbon fixation of vegetation growth increased by 1205.18 Tg C, i.e. a net carbon accumulation of 1149.15 Tg C. However, this estimate of the increasing carbon pool still awaits more systematic studies on the carbon budgets at larger soil depths of the top 2–3 m soils. This estimate can provide a timely preliminary estimate of the carbon pool as the baseline in the permafrost region of Northeast China for national and regional initiatives of carbon neutralization.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate Change
• Xing’an permafrost
• Carbon
• Integrated valuation of ecosystem service and tradeoffs (InVEST) model
• Boreal ecosystem

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The simulation data of total carbon in the Xing’an permafrost regions in Northeast China used in this study are available through the Mendeley Data. https://dx.doi.org/10.17632/hrjmn2gbzd.1.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research is jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 42101408, 42001052, and U20A2082), the Startup Research Funding of Northeast Forestry University for Chengdong Leadership (LJ2020–01), Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2572021DT08), the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soils Engineering Open Fund (Grant No. SKLFSE202008), and the funding from the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano-Department for Innovation, Research and University in the frame of the Seal of Excellence Programme (project TEMPLINK, Grant No. D55F20002520003).