New research suggests thawing permafrost is releasing dangerous greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which could accelerate global warming.
"We've known for a while now that permafrost is thawing," Suzanne Hodgkins, the lead author on the paper and a doctoral student in chemical oceanography at Florida State University, said in a news release. "But what we've found is that the associated changes in plant community composition in the polar regions could lead to way more carbon being released into the atmosphere as methane."
Permafrost is ice and soil that remains frozen throughout the seasons. As global warming progresses, more and more of this "permafrost" melts, instead of staying frozen all year. This decomposition increases the amount of methane released into the atmosphere.
Methane has a high global warming potential in relation to carbon dioxide. The greenhouse gas is "33 times more effective at warming the Earth on a mass basis and a century time scale relative to carbon dioxide," the news release reported.
When the permafrost thaws it breaks down plant life, which is responsible for the release of the methane. The researchers have estimated that if the permafrost breaks down entirely there will be five times the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere than there is today.
"The world is getting warmer, and the additional release of gas would only add to our problems," Jeff Chanton, the John Widmer Winchester Professor of Oceanography at Florida State, said in the news release.
The study, titled "Changes in peat chemistry associated with permafrost thaw increase greenhouse gas production," was funded by a "three-year, $400,000 Department of Energy grant," the news release reported. The researchers traveled to Sweden on several occasions in order to collect soil samples.
"The research is a multicontinent effort with researchers from North America, Europe and Australia all contributing to the work," the news release reported.
