LowPerm

LowPerm provided further evidence that our understanding of methane emissions from surface and sub-surface permafrost sources must improve if we are to work out how best to prevent dangerous increases in greenhouse gas emissions throughout the rest of the 21st century. LowPerm was important for society’s perception of climate change feedbacks because it demonstrated that there are complex and variable natural emission sources in remote parts of our planet which are controlled by unstoppable processes that began at the end of the last ice age. This is why our own, far greater emissions of greenhouse gases urgently need better management: because they are easier to quantify and then control.

• Today’s greenhouse gas emission hotspots in Arctic fjord coastlinesinclude sediments uplifted from the sea floor after the retreat of the great ice sheets began 10000 years ago.

• The uplift caused the marine sedimentsto freeze, trapping lots of methane underneath. The escape of this methane to the atmosphere requires inclusion in emission estimates, because it is sensitive to climate change.

• Micro-organisms such as bacteria and archaeacontrol the production of methane in the summer thaw layer and beneath the permafrost. They also reduce methane emissions by either consuming it or by using iron and sulphur as alternative energy sources.