Abrupt Frozen Soil Thaw Produces More Carbon Emissions

This finding, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, sheds new light on the relationship between permafrost carbon-climate feedback and future global warming scenarios.

Abrupt permafrost thaw, known as thermokarst, occurred in about 20 percent of the northern permafrost region on Earth that stores about half of all below-ground organic carbon.

The researchers from the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that the warming-induced increase in soil CO2 release was about 5.5 times higher in thermokarst features than in adjacent non-thermokarst landforms.

They found that the greater warming response was mainly due to the lower soil substrate quality and higher abundance of microbial functional genes related to organic carbon decomposition in thermokarst-affected soils.

The results may help to project the future trajectory of permafrost carbon-climate feedback more accurately, said the researchers.

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