2025/08/29 by Amelie Lindgren, Peter Kuhry, Max Holloway +3 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric carbon cycle #Atmospheric sciences #Biome #Carbon cycle #Carbon fibers #Climate change #Climate change and permafrost #Deglaciation #Ecology #Ecosystem #Environmental science #Geography #Geology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Holocene #Last Glacial Maximum #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Oceanography #Peat #Permafrost #Physical geography #Terrestrial ecosystem
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/sciadv.adt6231
published in Science Advances 11(35), eadt6231 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
openalex publication_date 2025/08/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The dynamics of atmospheric CO 2 concentrations during and following the last deglaciation have mainly been ascribed to carbon release from and uptake in oceans, primarily in the Southern Ocean. But recent studies also point toward a terrestrial influence. We quantify dynamic changes to northern terrestrial carbon stocks from the Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 years) until present at millennial time steps using a combination of paleo-data and climate-biome modeling. During the deglaciation, northern land carbon storage declined by >300 petagrams of carbon with a minimum around 11,000 years, followed by progressively higher land carbon stocks during the Holocene. We find evidence that dynamic changes in terrestrial land carbon stocks were of a scale to exert large influence on atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and that postglacial terrestrial carbon stock dynamics were dominated by losses from permafrost-affected loess and gains into peatlands.