Surface methane emissions increased and at greater depths in response to increasing temperatures.
Warming temperatures in cold-climate peatlands may over time trigger decomposition of old, deeply buried peat and increase emissions of climate-harming methane and carbon dioxide into the air, according to a study led by a former University of Oregon doctoral student.
Most troubling is the potential release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that absorbs sunlight and warms the atmosphere, said study co-author Scott Bridgham, a biologist in the Department of Biology and member of the UO’s Environmental Studies Program and Institute of Ecology and Evolution.
The study, led by Anya Hopple and conducted by a nine-member team at an experimental Minnesota forest, appeared last month in Nature Communications. Peatlands, which consist of decaying organic matter that can be many meters deep, contain half of the world’s soil carbon but occupy only 3 percent of land area. How warming will affect gas emissions and global warming is a growing concern.
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