|A recent paper in the journal Nature that is co-authored by UT Arlington College of Science associate professor of biology Laura Gough is challenging long-held ideas about the effects of temperature increases in the Alaskan tundra.
High latitudes contain nearly half of global soil carbon, and scientists have been concerned that warming temperatures could lead to increased microbial activity and more of that carbon being released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Increased carbon dioxide releases would then speed warming even more, enhancing the greenhouse effect.
Instead, the research team working at the U.S. Arctic Long Term Ecological Research Site in northern Alaska found that carbon stocks in soils subjected to 20 years of experimental warming did not differ from soils that experienced ambient air temperatures. Gough and her co-authors believe a complicated interplay between increased woody-shrub growth and the soil could be counteracting the warming effects.
But, even with their surprising findings, Gough and her fellow researchers
"This is what happened over this time period, but will it hold? We don't know," Gough said.
Co-authors on the work were from UC Santa Barbara, Colorado State University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. A press release from UC Santa Barbara is available here: http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=3013.
Posted May 28, 2013