Long‐Term Drainage Reduces CO₂ Uptake and CH₄ Emissions in a Siberian Permafrost Ecosystem

Permafrost landscapes in northern high latitudes with their massive organic carbon stocks are an important, poorly known, component of the global carbon cycle. However, in light of future Arctic warming, the sustainability of these carbon pools is uncertain. To a large part, this is due to a limited understanding of the carbon cycle processes because of sparse observations in Arctic permafrost ecosystems. Here we present an eddy covariance data set covering more than 3 years of continuous CO 2 and CH 4 flux observations within a moist tussock tundra ecosystem near Chersky in north‐eastern Siberia. Through parallel observations of a disturbed (drained) area and a control area nearby, we aim to evaluate the long‐term effects of a persistently lowered water table on the net vertical carbon exchange budgets and the dominating biogeochemical mechanisms. Persistently drier soils trigger systematic shifts in the tundra ecosystem carbon cycle patterns. Both, uptake rates of CO 2 and emissions of CH 4 decreased. Year‐round measurements emphasize the importance of the non‐growing season—in particular the “zero‐curtain” period in the fall—to the annual budget. Approximately 60% of the CO 2 uptake in the growing season is lost during the cold seasons, while CH 4 emissions during the non‐growing season account for 30% of the annual budget. Year‐to‐year variability in temperature conditions during the late growing season was identified as the primary control of the interannual variability observed in the CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes.