Arctic thaw releases greenhouse gases: study

The report in the journal Nature Geoscience indicated that gas emissions under certain conditions increased melting of permafrost underlying 25 per cent of the land in the northern hemisphere.

Emissions from wetlands gas measures that are melted in Zackenberg, east of Greenland, jumped up to 20 times and reached levels found in rain forests, which are among the main natural sources of gases that trap heat.

sample measurements of nitrous oxide production in the permafrost of five additional wetland sites in the high Arctic indicate that the rates of nitrous oxide production seen in the grounds of Zackenberg could be in the low range, “says study.

Scientists from Denmark and Norway, studied sites in Canada and Svalbard, off northern Norway, with its main focus on Zackenberg. The releases would be a small addition to the known impacts of global warming.

Nitrous oxide gas is the third most important greenhouse derived from human activities, and only surpassed by dioxide carbon and methane.

Also, is among the gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol to United Nations to limit global warming could cause more sandstorms, floods, heat waves and rising sea levels.

Nitrous oxide comes from human sources such as agriculture, especially the nitrogen-based fertilizers and fossil fuel use, in addition to natural sources land and water, and microbes in the humid tropical forests.

Scientists say that past studies recognized that a melting permafrost releases carbon dioxide and methane, while nitrous oxide was locked.

“Melt and drain the soil has little impact on the production of nitrous oxide,” Nature said in a statement the study led by Bo Elberling, University of Copenhagen.

“However, the resaturacion drained soil with water to thaw frozen ground, as would occur after the melting, increased production of nitrous oxide in 20 times,” he said.

“About a third of nitrous oxide produced in this process escaped into the atmosphere,” he said.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez in Spanish)