AGU - Warming Could Release Masses Of Carbon Locked In Arctic Soil

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - "The Arctic Ocean receives about ten percent of Earth's river water and with it some 25 teragrams <28 million tons> per year of dissolved organic carbon that had been held in far northern bogs and other soils. Scientists had not known the age of the carbon that reaches the ocean: was it recently derived from contemporary plant material, or had it been locked in soils for hundreds or thousands of years and therefore not part of Earth's recent carbon cycle?
Now, using carbon-14 data, scientists from the United States and Germany have been able to determine the approximate age of dissolved organic carbon in the Arctic for the first time. They report, in an article to be published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, that most of the carbon that reaches the ocean is relatively young at present, but that this could change. Warming of the Arctic, which has been documented in recent years, could affect northern peats, collectively one of the largest reservoirs of organic carbon on Earth. As the carbon-rich soils warm, the carbon is more susceptible to being transported to the ocean by rivers small and large, they say.

The researchers, headed by Ronald Benner of the University of South Carolina, studied four rivers in northern Russia and in Alaska, along with the Arctic Ocean itself. The carbon-14 dating method is not precise, because, for example, old and new dissolved organic carbon is typically mixed in a given sample, resulting in an average reading, and content of rivers varies by season as well. The scientists concentrated their study in periods of peak river discharge.

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"This suggests most of the land-derived organic carbon ends up being oxidized to carbon dioxide and thus eventually cycles back into the atmosphere," says Benner. "If current warming trends in the Arctic continue, we can expect to see more of the old carbon now sequestered in northern soils enter the carbon cycle as carbon dioxide. This will act as a positive feedback, tending to enhance the greenhouse effect and accelerate global warming."

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/agu-ccc022704.php

[GainesT1958]

1. What--and who--we find ourselves dealing with...

My wife took her VW New Bug to the local VW dealership to have a "Check Engine" light--and its possible cause--looked into yesterday. She said the guy at the repair counter went into what he must have thought was a humourous conversation: first he carried on with her about how such a light--and its coming on at the slightest problem--was "All Al Gore's fault, you know. Of course, he invented the Internet, too, right?" Then he followed with "you know, I'm not convinced about this Global Warming thing at all. I mean, it's going to happen in the future anyway, no matter what we do. Why do they blame it all on us in the auto industry?" No kidding; he actually spewed all of this tripe and more out to my environmentally -conscious wife, and apparently he does the same thing to other local VW owners, most of whom bought (well, new Beetles, Golfs and Jettas, at least) because they are smaller and more fuel-efficient than, say, a Chevy Suburban, Ford Expedition or Toyota Land Cruiser! x(

We've made major progress during the past decade in convincing the public that global warming not only exists, it is increasing geometrically--and despite the best efforts of both Bush administrations to thwart that truth-telling. But, apparently, we still have a long way to go. Sure hope it happens before places like here in Wilmington turn into North American versions of Venice--or worse, Amsterdam without the dikes! :scared:

B-)

[RainDog]

3. let the Pentagon talk to him

your wife should copy the Pentagon report on climate change and give it to the idiot to read.

Tell him that Gore tried to warn Americans about this issue for years, as have scientists, and now we appear to be at the point where we cannot stop what we have started.

more and more, it seems the Hopi knew what they were talking about long ago about the fall of the white man.

the good news is that if we survive this moment as a species, our descendants will not be fighting global wars because they will all be too busy trying to grow enough food to eat and transportation which allows current war will no longer be viable.

[Viking12]

2. "Testing, testing...

...testing, 1, 2, 3"

Feedback is not a pleasant thing.