Over one-third of the Arctic-boreal region is now a source of carbon dioxide
In recent research, CO2 data was collected from 200 study sites in Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Nordic countries from 1990 to 2020. This study is the most recent study about the region’s carbon fluxes, and it has considered the important recent shifts in climate and the incidence of wildfires.
The research data has been also gathered at Oulanka research station, where it was possible to produce high-quality continuous data. “This data is comparable to what we miss from Eurasian sites in global analyses. Access to the Eurasian boreal and Arctic regions is currently prohibited and scientific collaboration with Russia is on hold. The operations at Oulanka Research station have a critical importance,” says University of Oulu and Aarhus University Professor Torben R. Christensen, who is one of the authors of the article. Doctoral researcher Mikhail Mastepanov is also one of the authors and is working at the Oulanka research station.
The carbon fluxes in the northern region are changing
The research found that when wildfires were taken into account, the share of areas acting as a net source of carbon increased to 40 percent. The treeless tundra, boreal forests, and wetlands are now a source of carbon. Climate change warms the soil, which has increased the carbon-binding vegetation in the Arctic region, but it is not enough to eliminate the emission-increasing effect of warming.
This research underscores the critical need for internationally coordinated data gathering in the high Northern regions, to enhance our understanding of the Arctic's global significance. This also reinforces the importance of the focus on Arctic research at the University of Oulu,” says Christensen.
Read the original research article:
Virkkala, AM., Rogers, B.M., Watts, J.D. et al. Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025).