Microbial Community Changes in 26,500-Year-Old Thawing Permafrost.

ABSTRACT: Northern permafrost soils store more than half of the global soil carbon. Frozen for at least two consecutive years, but often for millennia, permafrost temperatures have increased drastically in the last decades. The resulting thermal erosion leads not only to gradual thaw, resulting in an increase of seasonally thawing soil thickness, but also to abrupt thaw events, such as sudden collapses of the soil surface. These could affect 20% of the permafrost zone and half of its organic carbon, increasing accessibility for deeper rooting vegetation and microbial decomposition into greenhouse gases. Knowledge gaps include the impact of permafrost thaw on the soil microfauna as well as key taxa to change the microbial mineralization of ancient permafrost carbon stocks during erosion. Here, we pre

SUBMITTER: Scheel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8988141 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature