Sentences with phrase «thawing permafrost exposes»

Not exact matches

But if the permafrost begins to thaw, these long - entombed carbon stores are exposed to the air and suddenly vulnerable to burning.

Wildfires burn up Alaskan spruce forests, the spongy organic «duff» layer at their base, and sometimes expose the carbon - rich permafrost beneath that layer to potential thaw.

Warmer temperatures at high latitudes are already resulting more frequent Arctic fires, and unprecedented permafrost thaw is leaving large soil carbon pools exposed to smoldering fires for the fist time since ancient times.

Recently there have been a number of media reports about a «tipping point» having been reached in the Arctic as permafrost thaws, lakes disappear into the permafrost, and more bare ground is exposed to the sun.

Portnov studies the remnants of methane hydrates exposed at the end of the last ice age in the Arctic, as well as methane hydrates currently thawing out of Arctic permafrost today.

The burn also exposes the carbon - rich permafrost beneath, making it thaw more easily.