Remember all those articles about beavers increasing global warming by destroying the permafrost in the Arctic? Well, nevermind.

Lower methane emissions when permafrost disappears

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic does not always have to lead to increased emissions of the greenhouse gas methane. When thawed soil dries up, emissions can decline instead. A new study at the University of Gothenburg demonstrates this.

Warmer climates thaw permafrost in Arctic areas, which can create very large emissions of carbon in the form of methane gas, among other things.

“Much of our knowledge about methane emissions when permafrost thaws comes from carbon-rich areas in the Arctic that generate large greenhouse gas emissions,” says Mats Björkman, a researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences. “Our study, on the other hand, was done in mineral-rich soils near Abisko in northern Sweden. There we saw a tenfold reduction in methane emissions when we compared areas where thawing occurred 15 to 25 years ago.”

The researchers noted that when the permafrost disappeared the surface layer of the soil became drier. As a result, conditions that allow the production of methane change.

Ohhh that? Well we couldn’t have known that before we sent a five million trappers to kill all the beavers before they destroyed the planet.  Never mind. They’re just rodents. And how could we have guessed? (more…)