Arctic Permafrost May Help Us Adapt to Climate Change

Scientists have long feared that as the world gets warmer, thawing permafrost may lead to a significant effect on global warming. But now new research suggests that this same Arctic permafrost may actually help us adapt to climate change.

At least, that's according to new findings published in the journal Nature, which details how gradual, prolonged release of greenhouse gases from permafrost soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions may buy society some time to figure out how to deal with dramatic environmental changes occurring around the world.

"Twenty years ago there was very little research about the possible rate of permafrost carbon release," co-author A. David McGuire, US Geological Survey senior scientist and climate modeling expert with the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said in a news release. "In 2011, we assembled an international team of scientists into the Permafrost Carbon Network to synthesize existing research and answer the questions of how much permafrost carbon is out there, how vulnerable to decomposition it is once it's thawed, and what are the forms in which it's released into the atmosphere."

Permafrost soils absorb so much carbon that the frozen North contains about twice as much as there is in the atmosphere today. And while that's good news, keeping the greenhouse gas from building up in the air, this system could one day be compromised - exploding in what scientists call a "carbon bomb."

As the world continues to warm and Arctic permafrost thaws, microbial breakdown of organic carbon increases and can accelerate the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane into the atmosphere - creating even more warming and permafrost thaw. (Scroll to read on...)