Sunlight Stimulates Release Of Ancient Carbon In Melting Arctic Permafrost
Monday, February 11, 2013 - 23:10
in Earth & Climate
Ancient carbon trapped in Arctic permafrost is extremely sensitive to sunlight and can release climate-warming carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere faster than previously thought if exposed to the surface when long-frozen soils melt and collapse.. They studied places in Arctic Alaska where permafrost is melting and is causing the overlying land surface to collapse, forming erosional holes and landslides and exposing long-buried soils to sunlight, and found that sunlight increases bacterial conversion of exposed soil carbon into carbon dioxide gas by at least 40 percent compared to carbon that remains in the dark. read more