Recent intensified riverine CO2 emission across the Northern Hemisphere permafrost region

Cuicui Mu (), Kun Li, Shaoda Liu, Yuguo Wei, Mei Mu, Xuexue Shang, Fumei Liu, Chunling Zhang, Hebin Liu, Tanguang Gao, Chunlin Song, Liwei Zhang and Jan Karlsson
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Cuicui Mu: Lanzhou 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

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58716-3

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