The northern permafrost region stores half the world's soil carbon. As the region warms, permafrost thaws and releases dissolved organic carbon, which leads to decomposition of this carbon pool or export into aquatic ecosystems. In this study we developed a new database of 2276 dissolved organic carbon concentrations in eight different ecosystems from 111 studies published over 22 years. This study highlights that coastal areas may play an important role in future high-latitude carbon cycling.