December 24th, 2015 – The Arctic represents a critical ring for the balance of the global climate system, as it contains immense amounts of carbon, stored in the form of permafrost, which with the rise in temperatures are likely to be emitted into the atmosphere, amplifying the greenhouse effect and thus global warming. During the cold season, these methane emissions (a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential far greater than carbon dioxide) are surprisingly equal or even greater than those of the warm season. This was revealed in a study led by Beniamino Gioli of the Institute of Biometeorology at the National Research Council (CNR-Ibimet) and Donatella Zona from the University of Sheffield and San Diego State University. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).”Our knowledge up to this point led us to believe that the Arctic ecosystems were emitters of greenhouse gasses only in the warm season, as the permafrost can melt at the surface and the organic matter is decomposed, causing the release of methane,” explains Gioli. “All studies conducted in support of this assumption monitored only the summer months, neglecting the period of winter and spring, which in the Arctic account for 70-80% of the year.” To monitor the cold season, researchers installed five Eddy Covariance (EC) towers and used NASA’s aerial platforms (already used in the Carve-Carbon in Arctic Vulnerability Experiment and Hippo-Hiaper Pole-to-Pole Observation programs), which they flew over the areas at different times of the year. The data will now be assimilated into the new parameterization of methane emissions in global climate models, and will thus contribute to the improvement of the equipment and methods to predict the role of ecosystems in climate processes. (Red)
