Millions of tons of organic carbon and methane sink to the surface of the Arctic Ocean each year. And climate change will speed up this release Greenhouse gases, Suggests new research.
This Carbon Bound in organic matter and methane (a carbon atom bound with four hydrogen atoms), it is currently trapped in subga permafrost, which is static silt covered by 390 feet (120 m) of seawater, which lasted until the end of the Paleolithic Ice Age 1,400 years ago, According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) Most of the submarine permafrost sits on continents under the Arctic Ocean, said study author Syed Sara Saidi, a doctoral student in the Department of Botany and Wildlife at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City.
Saidi added that the silt is in such an inaccessible place, there is little indigestion data on how much carbon and methane is lying there and how fast those gases are being released into the ocean and atmosphere.
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Some Scientists This greenhouse gas reservoir is considered a ticking time bomb, which can suddenly enter the atmosphere and create climate destruction. But Saidi and his colleagues proposed a different scenario: instead of being suddenly released, these gases have been slowly and steadily settling in the permafrost for centuries. Human-causal Climate change Accelerating the release rate can still make the situation worse, but this acceleration will happen over many centuries, not decades or years.
“Still, it will make a difference how it affects the decisions we make today,” Saidi told LiveScience.
His new study, published December 22, in the journal Environmental research papers, The team attempted to gather a comprehensive picture of Frost in the submarine using data from all currently available pieces; They asked 25 permafrost scientists to use their skills to estimate how much organic carbon is hidden in each specific layer of subsequent permafrost. Combining their visions, the team obtained a more detailed picture of the overall ecosystem, and they estimated that permafrost currently contains about 60 billion tons (544 metric tons) of methane and 560 billion tons (508 metric tons) of organic carbon.
Each year, they estimate that about 140 million tons (128 metric tons) of carbon dioxide and 5.3 million tons (4.8 metric tons) of methane escape permafrost into the atmosphere. It is almost identical to Spain’s carbon footprint, According to a statement. That said, due to data loss, estimates of these emissions remain highly uncertain, the authors note.
The authors also concluded that, rather than being driven primarily by recent human activity, most of these greenhouse gas emissions began after the final glacial maximum, when ice sheets were their greatest extent. Nevertheless, human-driven change can still push this emission “for many thousands of years or even thousands of years”.
In fact, over the next 300 years, experts expect that if carbon emissions from human activity continue normally, the rate of greenhouse gas emissions from submarine permafrost will increase significantly. If emissions increase in the 21st century, permafrost emissions will begin to decline by the end of this year and emit four times more greenhouse gases than will reach pure-zero by 2100.
In the general scenario as a business, the increase in emissions will continue for many centuries to come, but is still not enough to create the so-called “methane bomb”.
“By ignoring sub-permafrost in models of climate change, scientists run the risk of miscalculating the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is probably our goal in reducing emissions,” Saidi said. Over the next five to 10 years, Saidi said he hopes that additional research on sub-permafrost will help fill our knowledge gaps and provide more certainty about how much carbon is actually there – and how much is being emitted. He said other factors, such as the extent of sea-ice cover, also affect how much gas leaks into the atmosphere, as ice can act as a roof by trapping gas underneath.
Published on Original Living Science.
