«This is worrisome given that the temperature
in the study region is predicted to rise by as much as 2 degrees by midcentury under the
range of plausible greenhouse
gas emissions scenarios,» said Avery Cohn, aassistant professor
of environment and resource policy at Tufts, who led the work while he was a visiting researcher at Brown.
If further research confirms the model's accuracy, it could also open new avenues for exploring the origin
of life on Earth, and for understanding the role hydrogen
gas might play
in supporting life
in a wide
range of extreme
environments, from the sunless deep - sea floor to distant planets.