Arctic: Tundra releases more CO₂ than it absorbs

For millennia, the Arctic tundra has stored carbon dioxide in frozen soil and in trees.

According to a report, it is now releasing more CO₂ into the atmosphere than it absorbs. The US climate agency NOAA stated that the reasons for this include rising temperatures as well as increasingly frequent wildfires.

Over the past 20 years, fires in the Arctic region have released an average of 207 tonnes of carbon per year into the air. This is stated in the report, which was compiled with the participation of 97 researchers from eleven countries. In addition, climate-damaging methane is continuously escaping there. This means that the Arctic tundra, which is itself affected by the consequences ofclimate change, is contributing to it.

Consequences for plants, animals and people

Land temperatures this year were the second highest since 1900. The past nine years have been the nine warmest on record in the Arctic. The agency described this as a “dramatic change.”

Plants, wildlife and people are being forced to adapt more rapidly to a “warmer, wetter and more uncertain world,” the report continues. The increasing rainfall, for example, often falls on snow, coating the entire surface with a layer of ice. This makes travel more difficult for people and foraging more difficult for animals.

The number of migratory reindeer in the tundra has declined by 65 percent over the past two to three decades, according to the NOAA report. Heat in summer and rising precipitation are among the factors responsible. A further decline in reindeer herd numbers is feared.

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