CO2 evasion from the Greenland ice sheet

Greenland figures prominently in climate change predictions owing to the impact ice sheet melting will have on temperature, sea level, and possibly, ocean circulation. Here, we demonstrate that melting of the Greenland ice sheet also yields a sizable flux of atmospheric CO2 that will likely increase in a warmer world. We analyzed the major ion and dissolved carbonate geochemistry of the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua River draining the Russell Glacier near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Water emerges from beneath the ice sheet with CO2 partial pressures 3 - 10X supersaturated with respect to atmospheric equilibrium. This CO2 may originate from microbial respiration beneath the ice sheet. During downstream transport, CO2 evades to the atmosphere, but the chemical weathering of highly reactive glacial till sequesters 2 - 7X more as HCO3, a temporary carbon sink. However, only a 2X increase in the initial CO2 partial pressure is required to reverse the balance between evasion and weathering, and we suggest that significantly greater increases could occur as retreat of the ice sheet margin and expansion of moulins exposes melt water to interior basal ice, which has CO2 partial pressures over 450X higher than the current atmospheric value (Souchez et al., 1995). Extrapolated across all of Greenland, worst-case model predictions suggest net evasion fluxes of 0.14 - 0.27 Pg C/yr by 2100 depending whether melting increases linearly or exponentially with time. These estimates are close to the lower range recently identified for permafrost thaw (Schuur et al., 2009). This study highlights a new and potentially important positive feedback between anthropogenic greenhouse forcing, ice sheet decay, and climate change.