Discovery of a novel methanogen prevalent in thawing permafrost

Discovery of a novel methanogen prevalent in thawing permafrost.

Thawing permafrost promotes microbial degradation of cryo-sequestered and new carbon leading to the biogenic production of methane, creating a positive feedback to climate change. Here we determine microbial community composition along a permafrost thaw gradient in northern Sweden. Partially thawed sites were frequently dominated by a single archaeal phylotype, Candidatus 'Methanoflorens storda...

Arctic Landscapes in Transition: Responses to Thawing Permafrost

Soil CO2 production in upland tundra where permafrost is thawing

[1] Permafrost soils store nearly half of global soil carbon (C), and therefore permafrost thawing could lead to large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions via decomposition of soil organic matter. When ice-rich permafrost thaws, it creates a localized surface subsidence called thermokarst terrain, which changes the soil microenvironment. We used soil profile CO2 measurements to understand the r...

Stability Results for Convection in Thawing Subsea Permafrost

Penetrative convection is investigated in a porous medium bounded above by the ocean bed and below by the interface of the thawing permafrost ground. Such convection ow is observed oo the coast of Alaska. The physical model for the thawing subsea permafrost is that of Harrison and Swift 8], with the eld variables: the brine velocity, the temperature and the salinity. We simplify the problem by ...

Estimation of permafrost thawing rates in a sub-arctic catchment using recession flow analysis

Permafrost thawing is likely to change the flow pathways taken by water as it moves through arctic and subarctic landscapes. The location and distribution of these pathways directly influence the carbon and other biogeochemical cycling in northern latitude catchments. While permafrost thawing due to climate change has been observed in the arctic and sub-arctic, direct observations of permafrost...