A new study conducted by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey found that there is a possibility that global warming could cause the Arctic permafrost to release the nitrogen and carbon stored in it for centuries.
Global warming is becoming growing cause of concern. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey have added one more consequence of global warming to the already long list. According to a recent study conducted, there is a possibility that global warming will cause the Arctic permafrost to release the nitrogen and carbon stored in it for centuries.
"This study quantifies the impact on Earth's two most important chemical cycles, carbon and nitrogen, from thawing of permafrost under future climate warming scenarios," USGS Director Marcia McNutt said in a statement. "While the permafrost of the polar latitudes may seem distant and disconnected from the daily activities of most of us, its potential to alter the planet's habitability when destabilized is very real."
It 's also been found that global warming, while having a negative impact on the Arctic has had no effect on Antarctica which in fact is said to have grown in size, according to a report from NASA.
"There's been an overall increase in the sea ice cover in the Antarctic, which is the opposite of what is happening in the Arctic," said lead author Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "However, this growth rate is not nearly as large as the decrease in the Arctic."
"Winds off the Ross Ice Shelf are getting stronger and stronger, and that causes the sea ice to be pushed off the coast, which generates areas of open water, polynyas," said Josefino Comiso, a senior scientist at NASA Goddard. "The larger the coastal polynya, the more ice it produces, because in polynyas the water is in direct contact with the very cold winter atmosphere and rapidly freezes." As the wind keeps blowing, the ice expands further to the north.
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