Climatologists from the Russian Federation and the United States have found out that the rate of global warming in the coming decades will strongly depend on the level of species diversity of Arctic microbes involved in the decomposition of organic remains in thawed permafrost.
The higher this diversity, the slower the climate will change, the press service of the Russian Science Foundation (RNF) reported.
"We were able to prove that a sharp leap in temperature at the Earth's surface depends on microbial diversity, which is determined by humidity, nutrient content, acidity and the level of soil warming. We cannot influence microbial diversity, but the correlation we have discovered must be taken into account when predicting global warming," said Elena Savenkova, senior researcher at the Center for Scientific Research and Development, as quoted by the RNF press service.
The issue of rapid melting of permafrost in the Arctic because of global warming has already become a big problem for many Russian and foreign cities located in the Arctic.
The disappearance of permafrost leads to the destabilization of building foundations and to a host of infrastructure problems that, according to estimates by Russian and foreign climatologists, could deprive the Russian economy of more than 422 billion rubles in the coming decades.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
