12-22-2020
By
Earth.com staff writer
Since the end of the last glacial period, subsea permafrost has been thawing beneath the Arctic Ocean. A new study led by PhD candidate Sara Sayedi and senior researcher Dr. Ben Abbott at Brigham Young University (BYU) estimates that this subsea permafrost region currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon in sediment and soil, but the precise amounts of carbon remain highly uncertain.
While it is known that this carbon is already being released from the subsea permafrost, it is not clear whether this is a natural response to deglaciation or if human-caused warming is accelerating the rate of emissions.
The Barents Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean, located between the northern coasts of Norway and Russia. (Pixabay image via CNS)
(CN) Scientists researching millennia-old environmental changes still affecting our world today say that the model predicts certain changes over the next three centuries.
Fourteen thousand years ago, the Arctic Ocean swelled and buried coastal lands. Ocean water just a few degrees above the freezing point moved across permafrost, slowly thawing it and exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began releasing carbon dioxide and methane, greenhouse gases that are still rising from the waters today.
A groggy climate giant: subsea permafrost is still waking up after 12,000 years
In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most important greenhouse gases.
Though researchers have been studying degrading subsea permafrost for decades, difficulty collecting measurements and sharing data across international and disciplinary divides have prevented an overall estimate of the amount of carbon and the rate of release. A new study, led by Ph.D. candidate Sara Sayedi and senior researcher Dr. Ben Abbott at Brigham Young University (BYU) published in IOP Publishing journal Environmental Research Letters, sheds light on the subsea permafrost climate feedback, generating the first estim
Study Sheds Light on the Subsea Permafrost Climate Feedback
Written by AZoCleantechDec 22 2020
In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown.
The decomposing organic matter began producing CO
2 and CH
4, two of the most important greenhouse gases.
Though researchers have been studying degrading subsea permafrost for decades, difficulty collecting measurements and sharing data across international and disciplinary divides have prevented an overall estimate of the amount of carbon and the rate of release.