Coasts that contain frozen soil called permafrost make up approximately one third of the Earth's total coastline, and as they melt in the Arctic under global warming, according to one study, large amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere.
The researchers, including those from the GFZ Helmholtz Center Potsdam in Germany, simulated the effects of permafrost erosion in a laboratory experiment to discover how much carbon is released into the atmosphere along the eroded Arctic coasts.
They collected samples of permafrost from Herschel Island off the north coast of the Yukn in northwestern Canada and mixed them with seawater at sea.
The research team took periodic measurements of the greenhouse gases that this mixture emitted over the course of four months, the average duration of the open water season in the Arctic.
Erosions of permafrost coasts are releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide.
The results of the study, published in the journal. Geophysical Research Letters, revealed that carbon dioxide was released as quickly from defrosting permafrost in seawater as from defrosting permafrost on land.
"Our research found that the erosion of permafrost coasts can lead to the rapid release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide, which is expected to increase as coastal erosion accelerates, temperatures rise, sea ice decreases and stronger storms hit the Arctic coast, "he said. George Tanski, lead author of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam study in the Netherlands.
While previous research showed that the melting of permafrost on the ground caused significant releases of greenhouse gases, the current study indicated that eroded coasts and near-shore waters were also significant sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
The study, according to the researchers, questions the long-standing role of coastal areas as the main crossing point of carbon from land to sea, neglecting how in these regions carbon is also transported to the atmosphere.
"Carbon budgets and climate simulations have so far lost coastal erosion in their equations even though it could be a substantial source of carbon dioxide," said Tanski.
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