• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
BREAKING: Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update September 26, 2023
Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab September 25, 2023
Community-Driven Solutions Can Take Back Ontario’s Electricity Future: Torrie September 25, 2023
‘Apex Oil and Gas Lobby’ Undercuts Canadian Sovereignty, Laxer Tells Foreign Influence Probe September 25, 2023
Momentum Builds Toward COP 28 as Countries Back Fossil Fuel Phaseout September 25, 2023
Next
Prev

Scientists mull Arctic’s slow CO2 loss

July 27, 2013
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Arctic permafrost thaws each year, but – to the surprise of scientists from Denmark – in some areas it is not releasing the carbon dioxide it contains nearly as fast as they had expected. LONDON, 28 July – Think of permafrost as a slush fund of so-far uncertain value. The levels of Arctic permafrost that thaw each year and freeze again are growing at depths of 1cm a year, but the carbon locked away in the soils is – so far – not being released at an accelerating rate. This is good news for climate change worriers, but only for the time being. Bo Elberling of the Centre for Permafrost at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and colleagues report in Nature Climate Change that the soggy summer soils of Greenland, Svalbard and Canada where they have taken samples are not releasing carbon dioxide at the rate some had feared. But the results are based on preliminary research and they still have to work out why carbon release is so slow – and whether it will remain slow. The “active permafrost” is a natural feature of sub-Arctic life: there is a shallow thaw each summer, plants flower, insects arrive, migrating birds follow the insects, grazing animals forage, predators seize a chance to fatten, and then winter returns with the shorter days. But of all the climate zones, the Arctic is responding fastest to global warming, with a startling loss of sea ice; the glaciers, too, are in retreat almost everywhere. Professor Elberling and colleagues have been taking measurements over the three or four months of the thaw for the last 12 years; they have also modelled changing conditions in the laboratory.

Slow decay rate

There they could change the drainage and control the temperature, and they found that a layer of thawing permafrost could lose significant quantities of carbon, as the microbes resumed the business of decay: in 70 years of such annual thaw and freeze, up to 77% of the soil carbon could turn into carbon dioxide, with serious consequences for yet further global warming. But, they report in Nature Climate Change, that does not seem to be happening at any of the sites under test: if the water content of the thawing soils remains high, then carbon decay is very slow, and the eventual release of this carbon could take hundreds of years. So anyone who wants to model this release will have to think about whether there is enough oxygen to speed up the release, or whether cold water will dampen the process and slow it down. “It is thought-provoking that micro-organisms are behind the entire problem – micro-organisms which break down the carbon pool and which are apparently already present in the permafrost. One of the critical decisive factors – the water content – is in the same way linked to the original high content of ice in most permafrost samples. “Yes, the temperature is increasing, and the permafrost is thawing, but it is, still, the characteristics of the permafrost which determine the long-term release of carbon dioxide,” says Elberling. – Climate News Network

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

moerschy / Pixabay
Biodiversity & Habitat

Planetary Weight Study Shows Humans Taking Most of Earth’s Resources

March 19, 2023
53
U.S. Geological Survey/wikimedia commons
Biodiversity & Habitat

Climate Change Amplifies Risk of ‘Insect Apocalypse’

December 1, 2022
67
Alaa Abd El-Fatah/wikimedia commons
COP Conferences

Rights Abuses, Intrusive Conference App Put Egypt Under Spotlight as COP 27 Host

November 14, 2022
34

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Jason Blackeye/Unsplash

BREAKING: Fossil Fuels Fall 25% by 2030, Renewables ‘Keep the Path Open’ in IEA Net-Zero Update

September 26, 2023
213
Cullen328/wikimedia commons

Manufactured Housing Could Dent the Affordable Housing Crunch with Energy-Efficient Designs

September 20, 2023
388
Wilson Hui/flickr

‘Apex Oil and Gas Lobby’ Undercuts Canadian Sovereignty, Laxer Tells Foreign Influence Probe

September 26, 2023
102
UNDP/flickr

Community-Driven Solutions Can Take Back Ontario’s Electricity Future: Torrie

September 26, 2023
102
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 25, 2023
89
United Nations/Twitter

Momentum Builds Toward COP 28 as Countries Back Fossil Fuel Phaseout

September 26, 2023
80

Recent Posts

UniEnergy Technologies/wikimedia commons

Multi-Day Storage Can Deliver Cheaper Grid Reliability, Battery Maker Says

September 25, 2023
64
David Mellis/flickr

Top Food Brands Prepare for Supply Chains Disrupted by Climate Change

September 25, 2023
51
Power lines, Mississauga, Canada

Two First Nations Groups Vie to Build Northern Ontario Power Line

September 25, 2023
76
UN Climate Change/flickr

Don’t Attend COP 28 Unless You’re There to Help, Figueres Tells Oil and Gas

September 24, 2023
471
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
674
Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
128
Next Post

Scientists mull Arctic's slow CO2 loss

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}