script for a podcasting on the issue of global warming
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GOING UNDERGROUND: CARBON EMISSIONS FROM OUR CHANGING ARCTIC SOILS
In this episode, we're heading out into the Arctic tundra. Here researchers are investigating the increasing release of stored carbon from Arctic soils into the atmosphere. In an Arctic tundra ecosystem, peat and permafrost store more carbon than trees and vegetation.
With climate change, permafrost is melting and trees are growing faster and further into the carbon-heavy peat regions in the tundra. As trees drop leaves and add organic matter to the soil, the soil composition changes from peat to thinner mineral soils without as much carbon. The team are quantifying the rates of carbon released into the atmosphere from the decomposition of these carbon-heavy soil types, to help global models better understand how an increasingly warming arctic will contribute to increasing natural carbon emissions.
Thanks to Tom Parker, Jens-Arne Subke and Phil Wookey from the University of Stirling, and Lorna Street from the University of Edinburgh for sharing their research in this episode.
SIMULATING GLOBAL WARMING: HOW WILL PLANT COMMUNITIES GROW IN PLUS 2 DEGREES?
By placing OTCs (open-top chambers best described as a small a plexiglass greenhouse with an open-top) on top of plots of natural Arctic plant growth above the tree line, which increase their internal temperature by 1-2oC, we can see what happens to the plant communities when given warmer seasons.
If tree growth increases in the Arctic, the region will lose some of it’s large, white snow-cover, important for reflecting heat from the sun.
In this episode, we cross Lake Tornetrask to establish these OTCs on a mountainside, then return to the Abisko Scientific Research Station to speak to Ellen Dorreppal, Senior Lecturer at Umea University, about her work.
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HOPE IT HELPS
What are the main issues of global warming?
Effects of Global Warming
Increase in average temperatures and temperature extremes. One of the most immediate and obvious effects of global warming is the increase in temperatures around the world. ...
Extreme weather events. ...
Ice melt. ...
Sea levels and ocean acidification. ...
Plants and animals. ...
Social effects.