Finnish researchers working on the northwest Russian tundra have come up with the startling new information that during summer, the tundra releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including laughing gas. But researchers do not find the presence of nitrous oxide remotely funny.
Finnish national broadcaster YLE reports that the researchers from the universities of Helsinki and Kuopio have discovered that the summer decomposition of the peat tundra releases methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
“This is the first time that nitrous oxide has been detected in the tundra,” says Maija Repo, one of the researchers who is writing her dissertation on the phenomenon.
The researchers believe that a peat mound can release the same amount of nitrogen in to the air as a nitrogen-fertilised agriculturally productive field. Furthermore, they predict that Arctic tundra could be contributing about 4 percent of global methane emissions.
Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than the more famous carbon dioxide; but it is present in the atmosphere in hugely smaller amounts.
This is quite a worrying find. Is there anything that can be done to reverse the trend?