Digging Up the Facts on Northern Soils

摘要

In the past, the amount of soil organic carbon in high-latitude soils was underestimated, as was the significance ot a winter contribution of carbon dioxide (CO_2) to the atmosphere from alpine and artic regions. As a result of recent research, it isnow understood that both factors have important implications for the assessment of the potential effects of climate warming. Under a continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, general circulation models already predict climate warming that at high latitudes may be several times greater than the global average, and possibly-more pronounced in the winter.