Geologist Bo Elberling Bo takes soil samples from a nunatak, a mountainous area surrounded by the Greenland ice sheet.
This means they have never stored much carbon, which could lead to significant methane emissions, as measured elsewhere in the Arctic, geologist Bo Elberling, who led the study, said in the statement. 'study.
In Greenland, methane absorption is made possible by a unique group of microorganisms in the upper layer of Arctic soil, which ingest methane that enters the ground from the atmosphere and transform it into carbon dioxide, the effect is less harmful for the climate, it is specified.
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The CAQ renounces popular financing
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Considered by the team as good news for the climate, this knowledge could be useful for the development of climate models.
It remains to be seen whether these results can be transposed to the rest of the Arctic, a region considered to be a climatic time bomb.
The conclusion is not that Greenland will have an impact on the total quantity of global atmospheric methane or that it will be decisive for methane budgets in the Arctic, underline the researchers.
Greenland's methane uptake is simply too low compared to other known methane sources such as Siberia, they add.
Methane lasts 12 years in the atmosphere, compared to centuries for carbon dioxide, but it has a greenhouse effect 25 times more powerful than CO2.
It is notably released into the atmosphere with the thawing of permafrost in the Arctic, in turn fueling increased warming, and therefore continued thawing.