Bog helps build climate insights (BBC)

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By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

A 55 million-year-old British bog uncovered by the Channel Tunnel rail link is giving scientists insights into a ancient period of global warming.

The researchers found methane released from the bogs played a major role in the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, when temperatures suddenly rose.

They suggest in the journal Nature that this is likely to clarify the role of bogs in present-day global warming.

Methane released by warmer conditions could make temperatures rise faster.

"This is the first time that we have seen evidence from the geological record of methane cycling in response to a warming event," said study leader Richard Pancost from Bristol University.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7003668.stm