07-07-2006 - Earth

sagar: Author=’Jorge Salazar’ program=’4933′ video=”Shown here are carbon-rich soils from the mammoth steppe-tundra along the Kolyma River in Siberia, once frozen for thousands for years. Terry Chapin of the Institute of Arctic Biology told Earth & Sky that large regions of permafrost are thawing, exposing the soil and releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Click here to expand. _JB:_ This is “Earth & Sky”:/http://208.96.63.114/. Scientists are beginning to measure the potentially big impact that melting permafrost will have on global warming.

_DB:_ “Terry Chapin”:/ is a research scientist with the Institute of Arctic Biology in Fairbanks. He studies very deep soils in Arctic that contain high concentrations of carbon. As long as the soil is frozen as permafrost, the carbon is locked in the soil. But as Earth’s climate warms and the permafrost melts, the carbon in the soil is released into the atmosphere.

_JB:_ Chapin said that if all the permafrost in central Alaska and the northern plains of Siberia were to melt, about 500 gigatons of carbon would be released. This carbon would cause even greater climate warming than before. Chapin said scientists knew melting permafrost could contribute to global warming.

_Terry Chapin:_ But it hasn’t been put together in a quantatative way that would allow global climate change scientists and climate modelers to use this information quantitatively in projecting how climate warming as a result of fossil fuel emissions is going to change the rate at which the climate warms.

_DB:_ We asked Dr. Chapin if the release of carbon from thawing permafrost will contribute to global warming.

_Terry Chapin:_ Oh yeah, I feel like the permafrost is a time bomb waiting to happen, and unfortunately, as a result of fossil fuel emissions, we’re lighting the fuse.

_JB:_ More at earthsky.org. Thanks today to “NASA”:http://www.nasa.gov: explore, discover, understand. We’re Block and Byrd for “Earth & Sky”:/http://208.96.63.114/.

Written by EarthSky