hide
Free keywords:
DEAL Springer Nature
Abstract:
Permafrost regions store between 1.100 and 1.500 gigatons of organic carbon and account for about 50 % of the world’s soil carbon storage. About 10–20 % of near-surface permafrost has been lost due to increases in surface temperatures between 1960 and 2000, and between 10–65 % of near-surface permafrost is expected to disappear by the year 2100. The organic matter in permafrost is only weakly protected and most of it is therefore available for microbial degradation. Microorganisms thus play a central role for the permafrost carbon feedback.