Study: Warming global temperatures may not affect carbon stored deep in northern peatlands

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://news.fsu.edu/news/science-technology/2016/12/13/study-warming-global-temperatures-may-not-affect-carbon-stored-deep-northern-peatlands/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Study: Warming global temperatures may not affect carbon stored deep in northern peatlands[/font]

By: Kathleen Haughney | Published: December 13, 2016 | 9:31 am | Share:


The SPRUCE research project is spread across seven acres in a natural spruce bog in northern Minnesota. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory/U.S. Department of Energy

[font size=3]Deep stores of carbon in northern peatlands may be safe from rising temperatures, according to a team of researchers from several U.S.-based institutions.

And that is good news for now, the researchers said.

Florida State University research scientist Rachel Wilson and University of Oregon graduate student Anya Hopple are the first authors on a new study published today in Nature Communications. The study details experiments suggesting that carbon stored in peat — a highly organic material found in marsh or damp regions — may not succumb to the Earth’s warming as easily as scientists thought.

That means if these northern peatlands — found in the upper half of the northern hemisphere — remain flooded, a substantial amount of carbon will not be released into the atmosphere.

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The open-topped enclosures—12 meters wide and 8 meters tall—sit over a corral bed that isolates the peatland. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory/U.S. Department of Energy.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13723

[hatrack]

1. "If" . . .

A surprisingly big word for one so short.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. I'm willing to grasp at straws

Why not?

[Blue Shoes]

3. At this point

I have no hope of anything positive happening in the next 4 years. If some progress is made on global warming, I'd consider it a miracle.