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A FROZEN REPOSITORY Gas fields and mercury deposits
Andra Pop-Jurj
A new study in Geophysical Research Letters finds that the Arctic permafrost is the largest repository of mercury on Earth. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin. And scientists now think there is around 15 million gallons frozen in permafrost soils — nearly twice the amount of mercury found in all other soil, the ocean, and atmosphere combined. “The release of heavy metals, particularly mercury, and other legacy contaminants currently stored in glaciers and permafrost, is projected to reduce water quality for freshwater biota, household use and irrigation,” the IPCC reports.
monsters and ghosts of the Russian Arctic
Methane seeping through Alaskan lake
A 2014 study in Environmental Research Letters estimates that thawing permafrost could release around 120 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere by 2100, resulting in 0.29°C of additional warming (give or take 0.21°C). By 2300, another study in Nature Geoscience concludes, the melting permafrost and its resulting carbon feedback loops could contribute to 1.69°C of warming. (That’s on the high end. It could be as low as 0.13°C of warming.) The logic here is simple: The more warming, the greater the risk of kick-starting this feedback loop. A study published in Nature Climate Change in 2017 predicted that 1.5 million square miles of permafrost would disappear with every additional 1°C of warming.
Methane oxidation Arctic lakes are sensitive indicators of global changes in the environment and climate, as well as the effects of regional and transboundary transport of pollutants. Mercury is present in many of the world’s gas fields causing harmful emissions and damage to human health via exposure. As the soil thaws further, the 56 thousand tonnes of mercury also get released contaminating the ecosystem and reducing water quality for
ADS8
Methane oxidation is a microbial metabolic process for energy generation and carbon assimilation from methane that is carried out by specific groups of bacteria, the methanotrophs. Methane (CH4) is oxidized with molecular oxygen (O2) to carbon dioxide (CO2).
2020/2021
Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, NASA Airborne Science Program
freshwater biota, household use and irrigation .
