Plant roots increase greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost soils
22 July 2020, by Anne Brockmann
How much carbon is released when permafrost soils thaw in the Arctic? Climate models cannot yet reliably predict this. An international research team has now investigated the role of plant roots. They release so-called exudates into the soil and thus accelerate the growth of microbes, which in turn accelerate the decomposition of soil organic matter. This positive feedback mechanism is known as the priming effect. The results show that by 2100 this effect alone can release 40 billion tonnes of carbon from soils affected by permafrost. Professor Christian Beer from the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) at Universität Hamburg was involved in the study.
See here for further information.