Controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades could substantially reduce the consequences of carbon releases from thawing permafrost during the next 300 years, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
Controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades could substantially reduce the consequences of carbon releases from thawing permafrost during the next 300 years, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
Conversely, climate policy that results in little or no effort to control greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide would likely result in a substantial release of carbon from the permafrost region by 2300, the study found.
David McGuire, U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist and climate system modeling expert with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, is lead author of the paper. Several other UAF researchers, along with scientists from about two dozen other research institutions worldwide, contributed to the study.
Scientists estimate that the soils of the Earth’s circumpolar North contain about twice the amount of carbon as is in the atmosphere. Much of that carbon is frozen organic matter locked within permafrost. As global temperatures rise and permafrost thaws, the previously frozen organic material begins to decay and releases greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. The release of that carbon can, in turn, cause additional warming and the release of more carbon, something scientists call a positive feedback loop.
Read more at University of Alaska Fairbanks
Photo: Permafrost underlies much of this tundra landscape in Alaska, as well as similar areas in the circumpolar North. Permafrost contains substantial stores of carbon that are vulnerable to release as climate warms. CREDITS: Christina Schädel
