Earth & Environment - Posted by Thania Benios-UNC on Monday, March 4, 2013 6:57 - 1 Comment 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Melting permafrost may double greenhouse gas
"Sunlight makes carbon better food for bacteria," says lead researcher Rose Cory. "What that means is that if all that stored carbon is released, exposed to sunlight, and consumed by bacteria, it could double the amount of this potent greenhouse gas into the environment." (Credit: Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr)
UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Bacteria munching on sun-baked carbon exposed by melting permafrost are converting 40 percent more carbon into greenhouse gasses.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
For the past decade, much of the focus in the Arctic has centered on the rate at which ice melts and its ecological impact. Now, as Arctic ice continues to melt, carbon that has been stored in the frozen tundra for thousands of years is creeping up to the surface and exposed to a new element: sunlight.
In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers reveal that this newly exposed carbon could double the amount of greenhouse gases in the environment—and profoundly change the trajectory of the climate change debate.
“Organic carbon locked into permafrost stores more than twice the amount of carbon that is currently in the atmosphere,” says lead researcher Rose Cory, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “But it has always been frozen, so it has not participated in the carbon cycle for thousands of years. With the earth getting warmer, that’s all changing.”
Cory and her team studied 27 melting permafrost sites in Alaska and identified 7 thermokarst failures, large patches of the arctic tundra that have melted. The melted ice causes the soil to collapse, creating either a large sinkhole, or if the slope is right, a landslide.
The researchers found that when UV light, a component of sunlight, hits the carbon it bakes it, and this “baked” carbon is more palatable to bacteria than carbon that has not been exposed to sunlight, such that the bacteria convert 40 percent more of it into carbon dioxide gas.
“Sunlight makes carbon better food for bacteria,” says Cory. “What that means is that if all that stored carbon is released, exposed to sunlight, and consumed by bacteria, it could double the amount of this potent greenhouse gas into the environment.”
The finding has profound implications for the debate on climate change. Cory explains that the likelihood of that doubling is great, given the circularity of the relationship: as the earth warms, the frozen arctic soils also warm, thaw, and release more carbon dioxide.
The release of the gas accelerates the Earth’s warming, which further accelerates the thawing of arctic soils and the release of even more carbon dioxide.
Source: UNC-Chapel Hill
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1 Comment
Cruz Subia
Melting permafrost exposing carbon for bacteria to eat thus resulting in more carbon dioxide to add to the climate warming problem is one more thing to worry about seriously. My concern about the melting permafrost has been the release of methane that is also stored in there some where and with the oceans warming up much of the stored methane in the ocean floors will also be released into our climate. Continual cutting of the earths lungs ( Great Amazon and other jungles that eat the carbon dioxide to release oxygen) is another great threat to our climate. I believe that Mahatma Gandhi once said that the world has enough to provide for man’s needs, but not for man’s greed. I am disappointed that so many people are so indifferent to what is happening to our environment due to our need to control everything such as Monsanto’s assault on our food supplies and the poisoning of our aquifers through our new approach to releasing gas and oil through fracking. I question what else are we releasing when we disturb the earth beneath us..what about radon or radiation or other poisons that will kill us. I fear for all of the aquifers that will be polluted with fracking and the propriety protected solutions that the mineral companies are injecting into mother earth. Why are they so reluctant to tell us what they are using and why has the EPA allowed this to happen. I thought we the tax payers paid them to protect our environment from their insidious methods that later result in harm to all living creatures including humans…. I am so saddened and wonder if the tipping point of our abuse of Mother Earth has been reached due to our shortsightedness.