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Content Tagged "climate change"

Metagenomic study of methane in marine microbial communities

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and previous studies suggested that it is removed from the atmosphere through aerobic and anaerobic processes with the help of bacteria and archaea. Recent evidence suggests, however, that methane can be removed through other pathways involving as-yet unidentified microbes. To learn more about these pathways and… [Read More]

Methylobacteria Shed Light on the C and N Cycles

Methylobacteriaare vital for processing single-carbon compounds like methanol, methylamine, and the greenhouse gas methane. They play a central role in the carbon and nitrogen cycle. While many researchers are studying the bacteria, their full functionality is still unknown– but it’s becoming more complete, thanks to a recent publication of six genomes of different strains of… [Read More]

Permafrost study referenced in ScienceNews

In Nature in December, a team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif., and colleagues reported one such microbe’s draft genome — put together from DNA acquired from the semifrozen dirt in an Alaskan black spruce forest. The Alaskan microbe carries genes tuned to transform organic matter into methane, a finding that… [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study on Voice of America

Lead author Janet Jansson, senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California says the trapped microorganisms in permafrost are still active. Jansson and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Joint Genome Institute at the Department of Energy set out to identify microbes in permafrost and find out what they would do once… [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study on Medill News Reports

Microbes frozen for thousands of years can spring to life and digest the carbon to release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, amplifying warming and melting. Scientists can’t yet predict how much of the carbon stored in Arctic permafrost will reach the atmosphere, but microbes could play a pivotal role. Read more on Medill Reports Chicago [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study on Examiner.com

The carbon dioxide contained in the polar caps is estimated to be 1,672 billion metric tons. The slow but steady melting of the polar regions from global warming has and will continue to release more carbon as carbon dioxide as the ice sheets melt.More interesting and more potentially dangerous is the effect that melting ice… [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study in Gizmodo

A team of researchers from Berkeley took chunks of permafrost soil from Alaska, and shipped them back to the lab to thaw them out in controlled conditions. As they woke up, the gassy little microorganisms trapped in the melting ice spewed out more methane than the contestants in a bean-eating competition. Read more in Gizmodo [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study in Discover

What’s the News: Melting  permafrost in a warming world could mean lots of greenhouses gasses, especially methane, released into the atmosphere. But it also means an unusual community of soil bacteria coming out of hibernation, so to speak. A new study looks at what those permafrost microbes do, exactly, as their environment warms up. Read… [Read More]

Permafrost soil metagenome study in Time

One of those wild cards is the 1,672 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent trapped in the form of methane in the Arctic permafrost, the soils kept frozen by the far North’s extreme temperatures. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas—it has 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide—and the total amount of carbon equivalent in… [Read More]