Quantifying Climate Feedbacks of the Terrestrial Biosphere under Thawing Permafrost Conditions in the Arctic

Archive Project
Quantifying Climate Feedbacks of the Terrestrial Biosphere under Thawing Permafrost Conditions in the Arctic

Focus Areas: 

  • Natural Ecosystems
  • Earth Systems

This study aims to quantify the climate-warming feedback potential from emitted trace gases, as well as landscape changes within Arctic ecosystems. Analyzing these areas, we will test the hypothesis that there exists a warming threshold beyond which permafrost degradation and lake/wetland expansion will stimulate increases in methane and carbon dioxide emissions. This proposed research further improves our earth-system model by enhancing our representation of permafrost and dynamic wetland and lake systems to explore their effects on hydrological and carbon dynamics.

Funding Sources

Project Leaders

Administration, Faculty
MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy
Collaborators
Joint Program
Collaborators
Marine Biological Laboratory; Joint Program