Comparing carbon storage of Siberian tundra and taiga permafrost ecosystems at very high spatial resolution.

Abstract

Permafrost‐affected ecosystems are important components in the global carbon (C) cycle that, despite being vulnerable to disturbances under climate change, remain poorly understood. This dataset provides high-resolution land cover data for the Spasskaya Pad/Neleger study area. The land cover classification was constructed from very high spatial resolution (2 m) WorldView 2 (DigitalGlobe, 25 July 2012) satellite imagery. It was used to map soil organic carbon (SOC) and vegetation biomass over an area dominated by Siberian larch forest and thermokarst basins (Alas landscape). We argue that vegetation dynamics and biomass accumulation are unlikely to offset mineralization of thawed permafrost C and that landscape‐scale reworking of SOC represents the largest potential changes to C cycling.