1.5.2.6 Effects of permafrost thaw on the global hydrological cycle

Permafrost regions have accumulated substantial amounts of ice in their soils. With ground ice melting away in a warmer climate, permafrost landscapes experience abrupt thaw processes (1.2.2.4) and drastic hydrological changes, which are not fully understood yet. Hence, uncertainty exists about whether high-latitude regions might become wetter or drier in the future. They could turn into a wetter and cooler state with many freshwater systems and lakes, which support increasing land-atmosphere moisture recycling and cloud cover, reducing ground temperatures; or a drier state as newly formed lakes could drain, with less moisture recycling supporting less cloud cover and a warmer surface (Nitzbon et al., 2020; Liljedahl et al., 2016). 

Which parts of the Arctic will be wetter or drier in the future is uncertain, but the differences between the potential Arctic hydroclimatic futures could be very pronounced. As recently shown by de Vrese et al. (2023), the drier and warmer permafrost state would lead to less sea ice, a reduced pole-to-equator temperature gradient, and a weaker AMOC. The drier Arctic state also shifts the position of the ITCZ, which results in higher precipitation in the Sahel region and potentially also in the Amazon rainforest. Increased forest and vegetation cover in these regions would be the consequence (de Vrese et al., 2023). Therefore, shifts in permafrost hydrology could affect climate tipping systems far beyond Arctic boundaries.

Figure: 1.5.3
Figure: 1.5.3 Matrix of links between elements (tipping systems and other nonlinear components) discussed in this chapter (see also Figs. 1 and 2). Columns denote the element from which the interaction originates, rows denote the tipping system to which element the interaction is pointing. We separate three different types of effects: A stabilising effect (blue box), a destabilising link (red box) and an unclear or competing link (grey box). White boxes denote no (or an unknown) link. Based on the recent literature, the strengths of the links are grouped into four groups: Strong (S), Moderate (M), Weak (W), and Unclear if a strength estimate is lacking (U). Abbreviations of the elements stand for: GrIS = Greenland Ice Sheet, WAIS = West Antarctic Ice Sheet, AMOC = Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, ASI = Arctic Sea Ice, AMAZ = Amazon rainforest, ENSO = El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Coral = Coral reefs, ISM = Indian summer monsoon, WAM = West African monsoon, PERM = Permafrost. More details on each of the links can be found in Table 1 of the accompanying scientific review paper Wunderling and von der Heydt et al. (accepted) from which this figure is adapted from.
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