Increased Melting and Slumping Soil Produce High Amounts of CO2, Tied to Global Warming, Nemo and Hurricane Sandy

Every spring, water from massive amounts of melting snow floods the arctic plains. The water carries with it soil containing high amounts of carbon, which later on is oxidized by bacteria into carbon dioxide, says environmental scientist Rose Cory. This carbon from melting permafrost accounts to nearly 40 percent of all carbon released into the atmosphere from the Arctic, according to Science Magazine.

While most global warming concerns regarding the Arctic are focused on the increasing levels of melting, little attention has been giving to the amount of carbon that the melting process emits into surface waters. Now recent changes in the Arctic landscape have indicated that there may be even more to the permafrost issue.

As the Arctic's melting slowly has slowly progressed, large holes and landslides have appeared across the landscape. The more ice that melts, the less ice there is to hold up the soil, causing the land slump, creating what's known as a thermokarst failure.

These thermokarst failures emit much higher amounts of carbon into the oceans and rivers than the slow melting of permafrost. Cory recently conducted a study to uncover what happens to those bursts of carbon. She and her team found that the carbon is different to the carbon being released from permafrost melting and is about 40 percent more likely to become carbon dioxide.

"What it means is that the carbon coming out of these sites is more reactive," Cory says. "There is potential that these tremendous stores of carbon in these soils can be a positive feedback for more warming."

In an age when global warming is getting more attention, these new discoveries are key to helping us further understand our changing climate. Especially after the recent blizzard and hurricane Sandy that ravaged the north east, both of which were caused by increased moisture from warmer coastal ocean temperatures and increased sea levels, according to Andrew Freedman at Climate Central.

The effects of the warming climate are felt more and more. If recent disasters like Nemo and Sandy were indeed partial products of global warming, then studies like Cory's are more important than ever. It's imperative we learn more about our climate's recent shifts before it gets even worse.