Greenhouse gases released by melting permafrost may not reach the atmosphere, researchers find.
Carbon reservoirs found in permafrost and frozen methane hydrates have the potential to emit large quantities of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as the planet warms, but it is unlikely the gas released from those stores will reach the atmosphere, new research published this week in Science indicates.
“The findings suggest that methane from methane hydrates and permafrost is not as vulnerable to warming as some people have thought,” said Ed Brook, a paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University and a co-author of the paper. “We need to be more concerned about direct human-caused emissions.”
Using ice core samples that function like time capsules, a group of scientists analyzed changes in the methane content of the atmosphere from 8,000 to 15,000 years ago, a period in Earth’s history that is somewhat similar to the warming underway today, to better understand where they originated.
When plants die, they decompose into carbon-based organic matter in the soil. In extremely cold conditions, the carbon in the organic matter freezes and becomes trapped. This forms permafrost, a type of soil that has been continuously frozen for more than a year. Permafrost is primarily found on land in Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada.
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