According to The Economist, a team of 17 research groups from the U.S. and Canada, led by Breck Bowden, University of Vermont, is studying the melting of the world’s most extensive ecosystem, the arctic tundra. Spatial and Temporal Influences of Thermokarst Failures on Surface Processes in Arctic Landscapes team will monitor the thawing of the permafrost in northern Alaska, a phenomenon that not only changes the natural ecological landscape, but emits potentially huge amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
As the arctic tundra’s permafrost melts, organic matter within the permafrost decomposes, releasing carbon and methane into the atmosphere. According to The Economist, the methane released from the permafrost is a particular source of concern to climate scientists – methane has 25 times the warming potential as CO2. Permafrost is viewed as an enormous and fragile “carbon sink,” and it’s estimated that the world’s permafrost contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. In comments to the U.S. News and World Report, Andrew Jacobson, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University said: “Permafrost historically has served as a carbon sink, largely isolating carbon from participating in the carbon cycle. However, global warming could transform the Arctic into a new carbon source by accelerating the rate of permafrost melting. This undoubtedly would have a dramatic effect on the global carbon cycle.”
The thawing process changes the tundra’s ecology. “Thermokarsts,” or crater-like formations in the earth, often appear where permafrost melts. Furthermore, The Economist writes: “Thawing permafrost also leaks nitrates and phosphates into the tundra, allowing novel plant species to get a foothold in what was, to start with, a fairly spartan habitat.” Thawing permafrost also affects man-made structures, leading to road and building damage, which can negatively impact arctic communities (see another article by Popular Science).
The Spatial and Temporal Influences of Thermokarst Failures on Surface Processes in Arctic Landscapes team are taking aerial photographs and field measurements. The scientists will then develop a model to predict where and when thermokarsts will form and measure their carbon content. According to the Economist, “they will measure the amount of carbon, phosphate and nitrate in the soil, together with the rate of plant growth and microbial decomposition. That will let them work out just how ‘leaky’ thawing permafrost is and thus how big its contribution of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere might be, should the worst come to the worst.”
Image credit: U.S. News and World Report / Af Rolf Haugaard Nielsen
