The fate of the vast stocks of organic carbon stored in permafrost of the Western Siberian Lowland, the world's largest peat-land, is uncertain. Specifically, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from rivers in the region is unknown. Here we present estimates of annual CO2 emissions from 58 rivers across all permafrost zones of the Western Siberian Lowland, between 56 and 67 degrees N. We find that emissions peak at the permafrost boundary, and decrease where permafrost is more prevalent and in colder climatic conditions. River CO2 emissions were high, and on average two times greater than downstream carbon export. We suggest that high emissions and emission/export ratios are a result of warm temperatures and the long transit times of river water. We show that rivers in the Western Siberian Lowland play an important role in the carbon cycle by degassing terrestrial carbon before its transport to the Arctic Ocean, and suggest that changes in both temperature and precipitation are important for understanding and predicting high-latitude river CO2 emissions in a changing climate.

The Western Siberia Lowland (WSL), the world's largest permafrost peatland, is of importance for understanding the high-latitude carbon (C) cycle and its response to climate change. Warming temperatures increase permafrost thaw and production of greenhouse gases. Also, permafrost thaw leads to the formation of lakes which are hotspots for atmospheric C emissions. Although lakes occupy similar to 6% of WSL, lake C emissions from WSL remain poorly quantified. Here we show high C emissions from lakes across all permafrost zones of WSL. The C emissions were especially high in shoulder seasons and in colder permafrost-rich regions. The total C emission from permafrost-affected lakes of WSL equals similar to 12 +/- 2.6 Tg C yr(-1) and is 2-times greater than region's C export to the Arctic coast. The results show that C emission from WSL lakes is a significant component in the high-latitude C cycle, but also suggest that C emission may decrease with warming.

Western Siberia, with large carbon (C) stocks stored in permafrost, is a key region in the global C cycle. This region contains numerous rivers and lakes, including Arctic’s largest watershed – the Ob’ River, yet the role of inland waters in the regional C cycle is unknown. Here we quantify C emission from Western Siberian inland waters to ~0.1 ± 0.01 Pg C yr^-1. The C emission exceeds region’s C export to the Arctic ocean by ~9-fold suggesting that any increase in region’s terrestrial C export will be largely evaded through inland waters and highlighting the need to account for coupled land-water C cycle to understand its response to warming.

The Ob’ River floodplain is the second largest floodplain in the world. Despite its vast area, estimates of carbon (C) emissions from the Ob’ River floodplain are largely absent. Here we present seasonal C emission and water area extent from the main channel and the floodplain along a ~4 km reach in the boreal zone of the Ob’ River. We find strong seasonality in water area extent of the Ob’ main channel (~1.8 km²) and floodplain (~3 km²) with water covering 34% of land during flood and subsequently declining to ~16 and 14% during summer and autumn baseflow, respectively. The C emissions also showed seasonal differences over the open water period ranging from 4.66 to -4.25 g C m^-2 d^-1 for the Ob’ main channel and from 0.03 to 1.42 g C m^-2 d^-1 for the floodplain. The total annual C emission from the study reach was ~940 ± 744 t C yr^-1 with the floodplain accounting for ~16%. The contribution of the floodplain to the net river C evasion can be even greater in northern regions of the Ob’ River basin, where floodplain soils are more C-rich and are underlain by permafrost, and in years with more extensive flooding.