How a warming Arctic is accelerating global climate change

Three recent papers by Ted Schuur, Regents Professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University, and other researchers from around the world, organized through the Permafrost Carbon Network, examine the biological processes occurring in the warming Arctic tundra and provide insight into what might to be expected from this region as the climate is constantly changing.

The world's northernmost ecosystems, including the northern circumpolar permafrost region, are an important reservoir of organic carbon. Although this region, which includes tundra and much of the boreal forest, contains only 15 % of Earth's land area, it stores about one-third of the world's soil organic carbon.

Like water, carbon cycles through Earth's ecosystems, with some being pulled out of the atmosphere by plant photosynthesis (a process known as uptake) and some being released into the atmosphere through other biological processes, such as decomposition. The natural processes that release carbon into the atmosphere are collectively known as ecosystem respiration. (Northern Arizona University, more at phys.org)