Will new carbon sinks appear in the Arctic? – ScienceDaily
Global warming could lead to the spread of bog vegetation in the Arctic. An international research team has found signs of “prototype peat” that could be the beginning of new mouths.
In 2018, an international research team drilled soil samples at three locations around the Isfjorden Fjord in Svalbard, Norway. The same phenomenon was seen at every excavation site: the mineral soil covered with thin organic matter. In other words, this layer contains a lot of carbon extracted from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
A research group led by Minna Väliranta, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, has given the name “prototurpe” to organic soil deposits that consist mainly of moss formed in the still warm Arctic climate.
“It is not yet peat in the true sense of the word, but one could say that it is the starting point for the formation of peat,” says Väliranta, who works at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. The research group also includes doctoral researchers Teemu Juselius and Sanna Piilo, led by Väliranta.
Such prototype security deposits are also attracting international interest. Väliranta is involved in a larger project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), a British institution responsible for the Academy of Finland. This project investigates exactly the same phenomenon, ie whether global warming has already led to the spread of oral vegetation in the Arctic. This spread of vegetation is part of a broader phenomenon known as “arctic greening,” which usually refers to an increase in shrub growth in the Arctic as vascular plants spread to previously barren areas.
“If this prototype peat production process is widespread, an unexpected carbon stockpile or climate change mitigation plant community may be stabilizing in the north. This reservoir has not been included in the modeling of ecosystems and ecosystems.
Climate-ecosystem models are constantly evolving, and efforts have only recently been made to incorporate the impact of bogs.
“It can be said that finding new carbon sinks brings a new component to the game that needs to be taken into account in models to better predict the functioning of ecosystems in a warming climate,” Väliranta says.
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